The first series of Junior MasterChef Australia, the second spin-off of the Australian reality television series MasterChef Australia, began on 12 September 2010 and aired on Network Ten. Matt Preston, George Calombaris and Gary Mehigan returned alongside new judge, Anna Gare.
The series was won by then 12-year-old Isabella Bliss from New South Wales.
Contents
Changes
In contrast to prior series, Junior MasterChef Australia is produced by Shine Australia. The series premiered on Sunday, 12 September 2010. It also added Anna Gare as fourth judge during individual challenges.
The series began with the Top 50 selected from the 5,500 applicants who auditioned for the show. The Top 50 featured five heats, with ten from the Top 50 who were best at the heat's team participating in each heat. Afterwards, the judges selected four to move forward to the Top 20. Furthermore, the Top 20 competed in two challenges to pick the Top 12. Contrast to other versions, contestants are not eliminated every week; rather, four are eliminated every few episodes. Every eliminated contestant received a range of prizes, including those in the Top 50.
Contestants
The top 12 contestants were chosen throughout the first week of challenges amongst the Top 50 and the Top 20. The full group of 12 were all revealed on Sunday, 26 September 2010:
Notes:
Winner
Isabella Bliss entered Junior MasterChef Australia with her fraternal twin sister, Sofia. The twins hoped to open a restaurant named Is-Sofia.
In 2011, the Bliss twins published a cook book named A little bit of this, a little bit of that. They also worked with "Cupcake for A Cure", a child cancer charity.
In November 2013, Isabella Bliss was named as one of YWCA Queensland's "125 Leading Women". As of 2016, Isabella was studying at the University of Queensland and Sofia was undertaking a gap year.
Special guests
Callum Hann – Top 20 Cooking Challenge
Mark Jensen – MasterClass 1
Poh Ling Yeow – MasterClass 1
Donna Hay – Pressure Test 2 and Elimination Challenge 3
John Lanzafáme – Elimination Challenge 1
Justin North – Team Challenge 2
Matt Moran – Team Challenge 2, MasterClass Réunion, and Elimination Challenge 3
Jude Bolton – Team Challenge 3
Adam Goodes – Team Challenge 3
Luke Mangan – Team Challenge 3
Stephanie Alexander – MasterClass 3 and MasterClass Réunion
Peter Gilmore – Mystery Box 3
Peter Kuruvita – Elimination Challenge 2
Kylie Kwong – MasterClass Réunion
Guillaume Brahimi – MasterClass Réunion
Christine Manfield – MasterClass Réunion and Elimination Challenge 3
Giovanni Pilu – MasterClass Réunion
Shannon Bennett – Finale Night
Adriano Zumbo – Finale Night