Dessert Masters

Dessert Masters
Also known as	MasterChef: Dessert Masters
Genre	Cooking Reality
Judges	Melissa Leong Amaury Guichon
Country of origin	Australia
Original language	English
No. of series	1
No. of episodes	10
Production
Production location	Melbourne
Camera setup	Multi-camera
Production company	Endemol Shine Australia
Original release
Network	Network 10
Release	12 November 2023 (2023-11-12) – present
Related
MasterChef Australia MasterChef Australia: The Professionals

Dessert Masters, also known as MasterChef: Dessert Masters, is an Australian cooking reality show produced by Endemol Shine Australia which premiered on 12 November 2023 on Network 10. It is a spin-off of MasterChef Australia, itself an adaptation of the British MasterChef, and sees ten professional pastry chefs competing for a $100,000 prize. MasterChef Australia judge Melissa Leong and international pastry chef Amaury Guichon feature as judges.

Dessert Masters was announced at Network 10's upfronts in October 2022. A second series has also been commissioned for 2024, with Leong and Guichon returning.

Contestants

Series 1

The full cast for the first series was announced on 4 June 2023.

Contestant	Status
Gareth Whitton	Winner 28 November
Reynold Poernomo	Runner-up 28 November
Jess Liemantara	Third place 28 November
Kay-Lene Tan	Eliminated 27 November
Kirsten Tibballs
Andy Bowdy	Eliminated 26 November
Anna Polyviou
Adriano Zumbo	Eliminated 21 November
Morgan Hipworth	Eliminated 19 November
Rhiann Mead	Eliminated 14 November

Episodes and ratings

Colour key:

  – Highest rating during the series

  – Lowest rating during the series

Series 1

Ep#/Wk-Ep#	Original airdate	Episode title / event	Total viewers (five metro cities)	Nightly ranking
Week 1
1/01-1	Sunday, 12 November 2023	Series Premiere: Your Dessert Masterpiece Immunity Pin Challenge — Ten of the best dessert chefs in Australia gathered at the MasterChef kitchen for the inaugural season of Dessert Masters, where they will be competing for the title of Australia's Dessert Master and take home $100.000. Their first challenge is to create a dessert masterpiece that describes who they are in three hours. With the season's only immunity pin at stake, the contestants create exceptional desserts. Kirsten took a risk by producing an entremet during the challenge, despite Amaury saying that he would not do that in that particular challenge. Her risk paid off and she was placed the top three. Joining Kirsten in the top three were Andy's roasted fennel cake and Reynold's monochrome dessert. But, it was Reynold's dish that was deemed 'flawless' by Melissa and secured him the first and only immunity pin of the season. Like Masterchef Australia, the pin can save him from being eliminated in an elimination challenge.	477,000	#6
2/01-2	Monday, 13 November 2023	Deception Immunity Challenge — Amaury showed the contestants some items that looked real but were actually made with chocolate. The challenge was to make a deceptive dessert in three hours. The winner of the challenge will receive immunity from the first elimination challenge. During the final seconds of plating, Gareth's cup for the coffee cup falls apart, forcing him to present the dish as it is. After tasting, the judges decided that Anna's hotdog-inspired dessert and Andy's 'Bound For The Bin' creation were the two best, giving them immunity from the first elimination challenge.	477,000	#10
3/01-3	Tuesday, 14 November 2023	Smashing Desserts Elimination Challenge — After Amaury showed a video of him making a pinata out of chocolate, the contestants (except Anna and Andy) had two hours to create a smashed dessert. One contestant will be sent home after this challenge. After tasting, Reynold's Snow White-inspired apple dessert, Adriano's interactive egg dessert and Gareth's chocolate and mugicha cake with sugar dome were deemed the top three and were safe. Rhiann's piggy bank dessert did not smash that well and some of her elements were missing while Jess's smash was deemed underwhelming. The judges agreed that Jess's flavour combinations were enough to save her and Rhiann was the first contestant to be eliminated.	451,000	8
4/01-4	Wednesday, 15 November 2023	Relay Team Challenge — The contestants were split into three teams of three for a team relay challenge. The Blue team (Kay-Lene, Gareth and Morgan), the Green team (Andy, Anna and Reynold) and the Orange team (Jess, Kirsten and Adriano) had to compose a dessert featuring maple syrup in two-and-a-quarter hours (forty-five minutes per team member), plus an additional thirty seconds to relay the information to the next teammate. Gareth, Anna and Adriano, as the captains and the first to cook for each team, had the power to conceptualize the creation. The Green team's only problem was Reynold's failure to take Andy's chocolate crumb from the oven. Kay-Lene from the Blue team struggled with Gareth's choice of entremet and Morgan was confused with the concept and needed more instructions. Meanwhile, Jess from the Orange team struggled with the concept that Adriano had made, and by the last changeover, the team still hadn't defined their concept. Kirsten, the last cook, salvaged it by making a maple syrup brownie. Upon tasting, the Orange team, while their dessert was beautifully crafted, had too many elements and was lacking in cohesiveness and while there were good elements in the Blue team's entremet creation, it was no match for the Green team and their intricate but unified and cohesive dessert that gave Andy, Anna and Reynold immunity from the next elimination challenge.	372,000	#11
Week 2
5/02-1	Sunday, 19 November 2023	Frozen Mystery Box Elimination Challenge — The contestants were welcomed with a frozen Mystery Box (the only one this season), which included rosella, chili, beetroot and berry liquor. The contestants (except Anna, Andy and Reynold) were given two-and-a-half hours to create a frozen masterpiece using at least one of the ingredients. Somebody will be sent home today. After tasting, Kay-Lene's dessert, which was inspired by her mentor, Andres Lara, was deemed the best dessert that Amaury tasted so far in the competition and she was declared safe. Kirsten, Gareth and Jess were also impressed with their creations, despite Jess burning her first batch of beetroot tuile. The lack of frozen elements in Adriano's dish left the judges unsure whether his dessert met the brief, but it was Morgan's overuse of the liquor that affected the freezing of the sorbet in his Peach Melba dish. The sorbet, which was the frozen element, melted in front of the judges, sealing his elimination.	342,000	#12
6/02-2	Monday, 20 November 2023	Chocolate Immunity Challenge — Continuing from the previous episode, Amaury said that he will work all night to make one of his creations, that will be unveiled in this episode. The result is a sculpture of a koala made entirely with chocolate. The challenge is to make a sensational creation out of chocolate. With immunity from the next elimination at stake, the contestants produced exemplary desserts, despite minor criticism of some dishes. After tasting, the top two are Gareth and Kirsten. Gareth's elevated version of the Black Forest tart with Kirsch and vanilla ice cream impressed the judges, but Kirsten and her incredible creation of chocolate and coffee caviar had the edge. She won immunity from the next elimination.	449,000	#10
7/02-3	Tuesday, 21 November 2023	Inspired by Cinema Elimination Challenge — The contestants (except Kirsten) had two-and-a-half hours to create a dessert based on the movie they selected. Adriano and Gareth selected Grease, Andy selected The Godfather, Reynold chose Star Trek, Jess opted for Transformers, Anna selected Breakfast at Tiffany's and Kay-Lene selected Pretty In Pink. Jess's Humblebee dessert was declared the best and she was safe. Gareth and Andy impressed the judges with their creations and, while Reynold struggled during the cook and his dessert lacked his usual finesse, his textures and flavours were deemed flawless and he was also declared safe. The bottom three were Kay-Lene, Anna, and Adriano. Kay-Lene's champagne jelly for the Pretty In Pink-inspired pavlova was grainy and Anna's lack of knowledge of Breakfast at Tiffany's was apparent in her dessert, and her failed scone element made the dessert miss the brief. Ultimately, it was Adriano who struggled badly when making the chocolate cup for his milkshake dessert, as it kept breaking during the spraying process, and as a result, his milkshake leaked out of the cup. The structural problem in Adriano's cup outweighed the mistake that Anna and Kay-Lene made and he was eliminated.	412,000	#10
Week 3 (Finale Week)
8/03-1	Sunday, 26 November 2023	Christmas Double Elimination Challenge — Curtis Stone entered the MasterChef kitchen as Santa Claus with a bag of goodies. He distributed different fruit to each contestant. The challenge was to create a Christmas-inspired dessert using the assigned fruit in two hours. This was a double elimination. During the cook, Reynold, who was given passionfruit, struggled with the sugar glass sphere element for his Christmas bauble dessert, and despite finally getting one on his third attempt, his attempt to fill the sphere with cream resulted in his sphere shattering, forcing him to play his immunity pin and advance to the semi-final. Kay-Lene, who was given bananas, took a risk by making a cake. Despite the cake nearly collapsing, it received praise from all the judges. Given raspberries, lemon, and apples respectively, Jess, Kirsten, and Gareth also impressed the judges. Andy and Anna's attempts at a trifle with strawberries and blackberries, respectively, as the main ingredients had minor errors, with Andy's being criticized for lack of complexity, particularly in the presentation, and Anna's being criticized for the frozen gel element, and her decision to serve it in a champagne glass for the three judges was perceived as lacking in generosity. Those errors saw both of them eliminated.	441,000	#7
9/03-2	Monday, 27 November 2023	Semi Final — The contestants had three hours to create a dessert inspired by nature. Two chefs will be eliminated. Everybody performed well in the cook, except Kirsten. In the last seconds, her birdcage element, which was the most integral element, collapsed during plating, forcing her to serve the chocolate and passionfruit entremet as it was. After the tasting, the judges decided that Kirsten's incomplete dessert and Kay-Lene's lack of balance of dry and moist elements on her dessert saw them eliminated, leaving Jess, Reynold, and Gareth to compete in the grand finale.	471,000	#7
10/03-3	Tuesday, 28 November 2023	Grand Finale —	484,000	#10
		Winner Announced –	556,000	#8

See also

• List of Australian television series
• List of cooking shows

External links

• Official website
• Production website
• Dessert Masters on Twitter