, will be without its highest-profile star when it returns next year, with Melissa Leong no longer part of the line-up.
With Scottish chef Jock Zonfrillo having died in April just as the show – for which all filming had already been completed – was about to go to air, that means only one of the three hosts who starred onMelissa Leong has been axed from MasterChef Australia. It is believed that Andy Allen, winner of season four and a host since 2020 following the departure of original hosts Matt Preston, George Calombaris and Gary Mehigan over a pay dispute in 2019, will be part of a four-person line-up.
Sources indicate that alongside Allen will be Poh Ling Yeow, runner-up of the show’s first season in 2010, and Michelin star chef Jean-Christophe Novelli, who runs a string of restaurants in the UK, has run cooking masterclasses since 2005, and has been a regular on British TV screens for almost two decades. The fourth member is believed to be a high-profile local food writer.
Leong, who was nominated for the Gold Logie in 2022, remains a major asset for Ten, and will remain with the network as co-host ofBut while she has been popular with viewers, unconfirmed reports of tensions with crew on the long-runningProduction company Endemol Shine Australia makes bothA spokesperson for the network said the decision to shuffle the hosting line-up was due to filming schedules and publicity demands outside of filming.family,” the spokesperson said.