MasterChef and the 'Everyday Australia' : reception amongst first- and second- generation migrants

In contemporary middle-class Australia, it wouldn’t be going too far to suggest that the brand MasterChef Australia, its three hosts cum judges (Gary Mehigan, Matt Preston and George Calombaris) and many of its contestants and winners are household names. With an established history of popular food media and personalities in the country prior to MasterChef’s arrival in 2009, perhaps this doesn’t come as a surprise. The series was not just successful in gaining more international traction that the original British MasterChef from which the format was adapted, but it also managed to obtain a sizeable audience for a prime-time cooking show. According to David Penberthy writing for the Daily Telegraph in the wake of the Season 1 finale, ‘It’s one of the most watched Aussie shows ever, behind the Sydney Olympics opening and closing ceremonies, Lleyton Hewitt-Marat Safin Australian Open final and the 2003 Australia-England Rugby World Cup’ (2009).