''Junior MasterChef'' is a British TV cookery competition, broadcast by the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

, in which nine to twelve-year-olds compete to be crowned "Junior MasterChef". It is a spin-off from the main British series of ''

MasterChef ''MasterChef'' is a competitive cooking show television format created by Franc Roddam, which originated with MasterChef (British TV series), the British version in July 1990. The show aims to discover the culinary talent of chefs of varying sk ...

''. ''Junior MasterChef'' first ran from 1994 to 1999, presented by

Loyd Grossman Sir Loyd Daniel Gilman Grossman (born 16 September 1950) is an American-British author, broadcaster, musician, businessman and cultural campaigner who has mainly worked in the United Kingdom. He presented the BBC programme ''MasterChef (British T ...

. After a long hiatus, it was revived in 2010 in a revamped format, presented by writer and actress

Nadia Sawalha Nadia Sawalha (; born 18 November 1964) is an English actress, television personality, writer, TV cook and vlogger. She is best known as a long-term regular panellist on the ITV daytime talk show '' Loose Women'', being one of the original pane ...

, who won the 2007 series of ''

Celebrity MasterChef ''MasterChef'' is a British competitive cooking reality show produced by Endemol Shine UK and Banijay and broadcast in 60 countries around the world. The show initially ran from 1990 to 2001 and was revived in 2005 as ''MasterChef Goes Large' ...

'', and professional chef

John Torode John Douglas Torode (born 23 July 1965) is an Australian-British celebrity chef and TV presenter. He moved to the UK in the 1990s and began working at Conran Group's restaurants. After first appearing on television on ITV's ''This Morning ...

, who also presents ''MasterChef''. The revival series was commissioned by

CBBC CBBC is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast children's television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is also the brand used for all BBC content for children aged 6 to 12. Its sister c ...

controller Anne Gilchrist and produced by Shine Television and was broadcast on CBBC and

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's oldest and flagship channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television b ...

. A further series was commissioned in 2012 for broadcast on

and again in 2014.

Original series

Based on the ''MasterChef'' format, and using the same set, the original ''Junior MasterChef'' was for cooks up to the age of 16. It ran from 1994 to 1999 and was presented by

Revival series

''Junior MasterChef'' was briefly revived in 2008 for a ''

Children in Need ''BBC Children in Need'' is the BBC's UK Charitable organization, charity dedicated to supporting disadvantaged children and young people across the country. Established in 1980, the organisation has raised over £1 billion by 2023 through its ...

'' special after the success of the 2006 series. It was won by Billy. The first new series, targeting children aged 9 to 12, premiered on 10 May 2010 on

. India Fisher continued to provide the voiceover, and the judging panel consisted of John Torode and former Junior MasterChef champion, Lawrence Julian Roberts. Georgia, who turned 13 by the time the finals occurred, was the 2010 winner. From the 2012 series, Sawalha was replaced by Irish cook Donal Skehan.

Age limit rules

The online application formhttp://downloads.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/beonashow/junior-masterchef-application-form.pdf for the CBBC series filmed in 2012 clearly shows that applicants had to be between 8 and 13 years old on 6 August of that year. Filming of the early heats would start on that same date.

Winners

Transmissions

International versions

Legend: Still in production No longer airing In the Taiwanese version, the series is based on the same concept as Junior Masterchef, but there are no mystery box challenges, and there are no eliminations (but there had been cases where a contestant has quit the competition for health reasons). After the first individual challenge, there are a series of team challenges, where team captains cannot enter the pantry, the person who earns the most points (doubled as a winning team captain in team challenges) wins. The eventual winner will receive home appliances instead.

References

External links

* {{Use dmy dates, date=January 2014 BBC children's television shows MasterChef Junior (American TV series) 1994 British television series debuts 2014 British television series endings 1990s British cooking television series 2010s British cooking television series British English-language television shows British television spinoffs Reality television spinoffs British television series revived after cancellation Cooking competitions in the United Kingdom Television series about children British television series about teenagers Television series by Banijay