8 Scandals That Rocked MasterChef

In the United Kingdom in 1990, a little show called "MasterChef" aired for the first time on the BBC. In the intervening 36 years, the show has spread throughout the world, becoming one of the biggest televised cooking competition franchises in history. It's easy to see why: It promises to whisk amateur home cooks off the street and transform them into culinary superstars (these are some handy home cooking tips from Andrew Zimmerman if you don't have it in you to go on MasterChef). Plenty of winners have gone on to have their restaurant dreams fulfilled, and millions of viewers have cheered them on week after week, season after season.

And yet, "MasterChef" has never been truly squeaky clean entertainment (assuming such a thing even exists). Indeed, it has had more than its fair share of scandals that rocked viewers and the show's reputation. And these scandals not limited to just one location; all of the "MasterChef" versions, from its native U.K. to the U.S. to Australia, have had scandals alter how fans see the show to this day. Here are some of the biggest ones.

At its core, "MasterChef" is a celebration of the average person — of what the everyday, humble home-cook can accomplish with just the right tools and training. Maybe that's why this scandal rocked the show's viewers particularly hard, besides the obvious that stealing is, you know, wrong.

George Calombaris isn't exactly a household name in America, but in his native Australia, he was more than a big deal. Since 2002, he and his Greek-cuisine-inspired restaurants received showers of accolades, including numerous Best Restaurant Awards, five published cookbooks, and international locations. It seemed only natural he would become a "MasterChef Australia" host in 2009. And then it all fell apart.

In 2017, it was discovered MAdE Establishment, a hospitality group Calombaris founded and directed, had been underpaying a staff member. Then, it turned out the company had been underpaying over 500 staff members to the tune of over $7 million. Things quickly spiraled for Calombaris after that: He was fired from hosting "MasterChef" after significant public backlash, he had to pay the affected staff their long-due backpay, MAdE Establishment went into financial troubles, and he was basically exiled from the public eye. Hungry for Greek food now? These are some traditional Greek dishes.

In 2013, food blogger and cookbook author Marie Porter released a post alleging that two of her friends, both "MasterChef" contestants, had suffered sexual harassment at the hands of multiple members of the "MasterChef" production crew. She also alleged that one of these assaults involved a judge, and that these events led to "suicidal thoughts." Porter did not identify her friends or the alleged harassers or assaulters in the post, leading to much public speculation. One of Porter's friends, Carrie Stevens, would later affirm via comment that she witnessed the harassment personally and asked to be edited out of the show.

The allegations never saw the inside of a courtroom, and Shine America, "MasterChef's" production company, publicly released a strong denial. Yet the question of what really happened that season continues to haunt the series for many who now can't look at it the same way. It's unclear if the allegations changed any on-set behaviors from production or judges.

Look, we all know where our meat and seafood comes from; that's not a shock. It is, however, generally considered good manners not to remind audiences of this fact of life, especially not on uncensored network T.V.

In Season 1, Episode 8 of U.S. "MasterChef," the contestants were challenged to prepare a dish using crabs. However, as is the case with lots of restaurant-quality crustacean dishes, the crabs were still alive when the challenge began. This naturally made some of the contestants uncomfortable, including practicing Hindu and vegetarian Sheetal Bhagat. Bhagat became quite distressed at the idea of going against her principles and killing a living creature, but ultimately turned down host Gordon Ramsay's offer to kill the crab for her. Bhagat framed killing the crab herself as "growing up," which left a sour taste in some viewers' mouths.

That would be harrowing and controversial all on its own, but in the same episode, we also witnessed the exact opposite treatment of a living creature from another contestant. Kim Dung "Slim" Huynh decided to break her crab up into pieces before she killing it (which is not included in how to clean crab like a pro), in what many viewers (and Ramsay, who tried to intervene), saw as a blatant example of televised animal abuse. The judges sent Slim home over this act, among other reasons.

Culturally, we have all at least somewhat accepted that reality television is fairly scripted and edited to tell the story the producers want to tell. Yet some "MasterChef" U.S. fans think that Season 5 went even further than that.

In the years since that season aired, numerous "MasterChef" fans have decried the entire competition as rigged in favor of the winner, Courtney Lapresi. Unlike the other scandals that have rocked the show in the past, the mileage on this fan theory largely depends on how you perceive Lapresi herself. She entered the competition with her career listed as "aerial dancer," which may have colored people's opinions. Her serving up what detractors on Reddit refer to as "mediocre food" and some possible captured examples of the male gaze from the judges only adds fuel to the fire. Lapresi has since returned to dancing rather than cooking as a career, and some people drew conclusions that the judges kept her around for reasons other than her culinary skills.

It should be noted that others have called out the inherent biases in many of these cries of scandal. This is one of those scandals that may all be in the eye of the beholder.

"MasterChef" has had multiple documented moments of cultural and culinary insensitivity. One of the most extreme moments came courtesy of "MasterChef Australia" judge Jock Zonfrillo, who, in 2020, managed to insult all Asian cuisines simultaneously by stating that Asian food was essentially unworthy of being called "fine dining." Keep in mind, he said this about the cooking of a contestant chef with Vietnamese heritage cooking a Vietnamese dish for a fine-dining challenge. Fans, understandably, were not pleased.

Similar accusations of racism and classicism in the perception of Asian cuisine have been leveled at U.S. judge Joe Bastianich, but perhaps the most outcry came from ignorant comments from "MasterChef UK" judges John Torode and Gregg Wallace. During the 2018 season, they criticized a chicken dish from Zaleha Kadir Olpin, a contestant of Malaysian heritage, as not being crispy enough. Said dish was chicken rendang, a traditional Malay chicken dish (that can also be made using beef for beef rendang) that, crucially, does not and has never featured crispy chicken. The judges actually eliminated Olpin after this, which only added to the scandal. The incredible cultural blindness on display was enough to make fans cry foul immediately, and even the Prime Minister of Malaysia stepped in to express his disapproval.

In 2023, "MasterChef Spain" broke one of the cardinal rules of any cooking show: Namely, the cooking on the show should not make people sick. Over 40 people were affected by food poisoning after eating food prepared by the contestants during a challenge taking place outside an aquarium. The fare included seafood (whether that was insensitive given the location is another question), but the actual source of the problem could not be identified, as all of the leftover food had been tossed before symptoms emerged. These are some signs if your seafood is spoiled.

Thankfully, the sickened diners only had to endure bouts of vomiting and diarrhea with no reported deaths. But, understandably, those harmed were not thrilled.

"MasterChef Spain's" production company, Shine Iberia, issued an apology pretty much immediately. Honestly this food poisoning scandal could have gone much worse, since there were 120 people in attendance at the event, but it was still not a good look for "MasterChef."

"MasterChef" scandals have not been relegated to the past. In fact, the most recent scandal occurred in 2025 in the U.K.

Gregg Wallace and John Torode had been the hosts of "MasterChef UK" since the beginning of its revival series in 2005. The two were renowned for their wit and playful banter with the contestants and judges, another jolly element in what supposed to be a pleasant show. However, that image was tarnished beginning in 2024 when accusations of sexual harassment against Wallace emerged from multiple sources. As the accusations began to be substantiated, including one of unwelcome physical contact, and backlash quickly grew, Wallace was fired in 2025. His cohost Torode also got the boot due to an alleged 2018 incident involving an extremely racist slur. The two were replaced by chef Anna Haugh and restaurant critic Grace Dent, to a warm reception.

Reality T.V. may not be "real" in any appreciable sense of the word, but audiences demand that it at least pays lip-service to reality. The winners of a cooking contest should win on their own merits, at least as seen on-screen. So when fans were rocked when an apparent editing error indicated that the game was rigged.

The finale of the 2017 season of "MasterChef Australia" had the winner, Diana Chan, winning over fellow finalist Ben Ungermann by a single point. That already struck fans as extremely convenient, allowing the judges to essential pick their preferred winner. But then fans noticed that scoreboards depicted showed two different scores, one of which showed Ungermann as the winner. Network Ten, the show's broadcaster, attributed the discrepancy to an editing error, but not every fan was convinced. Add in that the finale itself was controversial for the judge's scoring in the first place, and you have a recipe for scandal.