MasterChef Australia gets three new judges for 12th season

Jock Zonfrillo, Andy Allen and Melissa Leong would be filling in for Matt Preston, Gary Mehigan and George Calombaris.

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From left to right: New judges Andy Allen, Melissa Leong and Jock Zonfrillo. (Source: Twitter/@#MasterChefAU)

Household names and MasterChef Australia-favourites Matt Preston, Gary Mehigan and George Calombaris have been officially replaced by new judges Jock Zonfrillo, Andy Allen and Melissa Leong, for the show’s 12th season that will be aired in 2020.

The announcement was made on Twitter earlier today.

Meet your 2020 #MasterChefAU judges – who will be joined by an entire cast of returning contestants! 🎉 https://t.co/VzebovNmRm pic.twitter.com/EtdCAcZJuj

— #MasterChefAU (@masterchefau) October 9, 2019

While Jock Zonfrillo is a Scottish-born celebrity chef and TV presenter, Andy Allen won the fourth season of the show, back in 2012, and is currently the head chef at the Three Blue Ducks’ Rosebery eatery. Melissa Leong is a freelance food and travel writer, whose website proclaims she will “eat anything once”.

Allen had, earlier in the day, tweeted saying he was “stoked” to be “extending his role in the @masterchefau family as an official judge”.

ALSO READ | All three MasterChef Australia judges — Matt Preston, Gary Mehigan and George Calombaris — quit

It was in July 2019, that it was announced the show’s long hosts and judges Preston, Mehigan and Calombaris would not return for the next season.

The competitive cooking game show is based on the format of the original British MasterChef.

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