MasterChef Australia 16 Episode 9: It's all about family as Andy Allen's mom sets elimination challenge

MasterChef Australia Season 16 is streaming on Disney+ Hotstar. (Image via Instagram/jeanchristophe_novelli)

(Contains spoilers) Nine episodes into the latest season of 'MasterChef Australia', three of the original 22 contestants have been eliminated. The contestants have been put through the ringer in two service challenges - the latest one at the Queen Victoria Market where they raised 7,000 Australian dollars for charity. The one and only immunity pin of the season has been won. 'The Naked Chef' Jamie Oliver has come and gone, leaving behind memories of spotted dick desserts and working in the family bar as a teen. And in the first season since Jock Zonfrillo died on April 30, 2023, the new judges have taken over the mantle of mentorship that is central to the spirit of the reality TV show that is currently streaming on Disney+ Hotstar.

New episodes drop Monday through Thursday at 9.30pm. Ahead of the 10th episode coming to the OTT platform on May 7, we bring you up to speed on what's happened so far, which contestants have enviable skills in which department, what really is a spotted dick, what Jamie Oliver said to inspire contestants and how this season of MasterChef Australia seems to carry forward the spirit of all judges past:

Latest episode of MasterChef Australia 16

New South Wales contestant Jonathan Hooper became the third contestant to be eliminated in an episode that saw two rounds: in the first, judge Andy Allen's mom Mary set the contestants a challenge to reimagine one of three dishes she made at home when Allen was growing up.

Allen has talked about how he started cooking to prepare alternatives to mostly bad home food. For the contest, Mary revealed dishes made with produce and sauces that came out of tins and asked contestants to bring refined versions a la MasterChef.

Five contestants went into Round 2 of this elimination, from where Jonathan Hooper went out on a dish of ragout that left something to be desired in both the pasta work and the caramelization of the meat.

Another contestant who came close to elimination was Harry Butterfield - a surprise result, given that his fish filleting and preparation skills almost won his team the service challenge that came before the elimination round.

What is a spotted dick? What Jamie Oliver brought to Masterchef Australia 16

Jamie Oliver mentored the MasterChef Australia contestants for the first two weeks this season. Oliver's parents set the season's first mystery box challenge, joining in via video call to reveal a box containing - among other things - sultana raisins, a key ingredient in a suet (animal fat) and flour steamed pudding that they revealed was a favourite of Oliver's as a young boy.

Jamie Oliver guided the contestants through two service challenges in their first two weeks in the competition; one of many signs of how the difficulty level of the competition seems to go up every season. During one of these tough challenges, he compared guiding the home chefs to teaching his kids a new lesson - at first, they don't want to ask or even hear the advice, and later on, when they run into some trouble, they absorb the tips like sponges, Oliver said.

MasterChef Australia 16 judges Jean-Christophe Novelli, Poh Ling Yeow, Sofia Levin and Andy Allen with Jamie Oliver (centre). (Image via Instagram/jeanchristophe_novelli)

MasterChef Australia 16 contestants from the Indian subcontinent

Over the years, MasterChef Australia has featured contestants from different parts of the world. If last season Adi Nevgi from Maharashtra showcased Indian food, this season, Sumeet Saigal - originally from Bengaluru, and mother to 17-year-old twins - has already been pronounced spice queen.

There are two Sri Lankan-origin contestants this year: Darrsh Clarke and Savindri Perera. Darrsh, who was also in round 2 of elimination in episode 9, made a Sri Lanka brinjal and yogurt dish with rice. He admitted that he seldom draws on his Sri Lankan heritage because it was something he actively shunned to fit in in Australia when he was growing up.

MasterChef Australia judges

There's no denying that the original trio of 'MasterChef Australia' judges Gary Mehigan, George Calombaris, and Matt Preston gave the world a reality TV competition format that changed the model forever. Instead of pitting contestants against each other and talking down to them, they created a more collaborative environment to build the contestants (and their confidence) up. More than one contestant has talked about how their time in MasterChef was the first time they were in a place with so many food geeks - where if they talked about a technique or cuisine, they were reasonably certain the other person understood what they were talking about.

This year, two of the judges have contested in the show in previous seasons: Andy Allen - who won Season 4 in 2012, and has been a judge on the show since 2020 - and Poh Ling Yeow, who has come back since as a guest multiple times since Season 1 in which she was runners up.

Poh has been encouraging contestants to embrace their culinary heritage, while judge and multi-Michelin starred French chef Jean-Christophe Novelli has been liberal with both praise and tips.

Jamie Oliver, the first (and so far only) celebrity guest chef this season also oversaw the only immunity-pin challenge this year. Nat Thaipun - a barista from Victoria who has worked in Japan, Switzerland and New Zealand - won the pin as well as a week-long internship at Jamie Oliver's new restaurant in the UK.

MasterChef Australia 16 contestants to watch

If past seasons are any indication, we could have a dark horse like Billie McKay grow right through the competition - she was picked in the second round of auditions and had to overcome a string of elimination challenges - but for now Savindri Perara, Snezana Calic and Harry Butterfield are among the strongest players, based on the amount of positive feedback they have been getting from the judges. Harry's seafood prep is exceptional (he wants to open a fresh seafood restaurant he wants to call Fins n' Tins), while Snezana's breads and veggies (and donuts) have had the judges licking their fingers. Apart from the spice balance in her food, Savindri says some of the most fun things. Case in point: early in the season, when she hit a road block, she said: "My brain is not braining!"

Surely, we've all been there.

Episode 10 of Masterchef Australia 16, a mystery box challenge, will stream on Disney+ Hotstar from 9.30pm.