| Host | |
| Gordon Ramsay | |
| Judges | |
| Joe Bastainich Graham Elliot | |
| Broadcast | |
 | |
| Packagers | |
| One Potato Two Potato (2010-2012) Reveille Productions (2010-2012) Shine America (2012-present) | |
MasterChef is a American adaptation of the British reality competition series of the same name that is open to both amateur and home chefs.
Premise
There are many chefs auditioning nationwide, but they have to go each of the challenges such as:
Preliminary Round
Of all the amateur chefs who audition nationwide, one hundred are chosen to cook their signature dish for the three judges. Each judge takes a taste of the dish and gives his opinion before voting a "yes" or a "no". At least two "yes" votes are required to earn a white MasterChef apron, allowing the competitor to advance.
Challenge Night
The contestants who advanced out of the preliminary round next compete in two challenges. In the first challenge, all the contestants complete a certain task, to the specification of the chefs, such as cutting and dicing onions or slicing apples. The chefs who are not eliminated while performing the task immediately proceed to an "invention test". A theme is given to the remaining contestants, who have thirty minutes to create and cook a dish relevant to this theme. The contestants can cook with any ingredient they want, as long as the theme is prevalent in the dish. Once the dishes are cooked, they are all presented to the judges for tasting — by presentation, finesse, and taste. In the third season, the only challenge was the invention test.
Mystery Box Challenge
In Mystery Box challenges, contestants receive a number of ingredients of which they are to make a dish of their choice. The contestants are allowed to use any number of the ingredients they wish, and are free to omit any ingredients they wish. Once the dishes are finished, the judges choose three of the dishes to taste. The winner begins the judging in the following elimination challenge.
Elimination Test
The judges take the Mystery Box Challenge winner to the pantry and explain the theme of the Elimination Test in private. This chef is told of one or more advantages. The most typical one is selecting the specific ingredient to use or dish to recreate, but judges can include automatic advancement to the next round (a standard since season four), assigning certain ingredients to specific chefs, or even creating teams as to challenge their competition. The rest of the chefs are then informed of the decision, and given five minutes to collect any ingredients from the pantry they need and a fixed amount of time to complete the dish. Judges evaluate all dishes based on taste and visual appeal (although only some of them are featured, at least in the first episodes of a season), and select two dishes as the winners of the competition to become captains in the Team Challenge. The bottom three (or more) dishes are criticized, and the judges select one of those chefs to leave the competition; those that are eliminated must remove their apron and place them on their station before they leave.
Off Site Team Challenge
The off-site team challenge involves the contestants being split into two teams, blue and red, which consist of equal numbers and are given a task, for example, running a restaurant or catering for a party or wedding (similar to Ramsay's other series, Hell's Kitchen). After the task has been completed, the teams are given the results, which can be determined by third party votes. Members of the losing team compete in an elimination challenge, known as a "pressure test".
Pressure Test
A "pressure test" challenge involves competitors who failed in a previous challenge (i.e. the three worst performers in an individual challenge or the losing team in a group challenge). The competitors are given a dish that they then must create in a particular time frame. Once the contestants have finished cooking, the dishes are taken to the judges to be tasted, who then criticize, vote and eliminate one or more contestants. The contestant(s) who are eliminated must take off their apron(s) and place it on their station(s) before exiting.
Celebrity Chef
A celebrity chef challenge involves a contestant who won a particular challenge. The contestant competes against a celebrity chef in a cook off. The celebrity chef gives the contestant the recipe to reproduce, and the contestant receives a head start to cook the dish before the celebrity chef starts cooking and after a certain time the dishes are presented to the judges who taste and score out of ten. The dishes are tasted by the judges in a blind-tasting fashion, meaning that they are never aware which dish was made by whom. If the contestant scores higher than the celebrity chef, they receive an immunity pin which they can use during an elimination to pass the elimination challenge. This challenge has only occurred once so far in the series.
The remaining chef is the winner.
Inventor
Based on the British game show of the same name.
Other Versions
MasterChef USA - a precursor similar to the game but on PBS
MasterChef Junior - a kids version airing on FOX since 2013
MasterChef Latino - a short-lived Spanish-language version that aired on Telemundo in 2018.
International Versions
The following list of countries that have previously aired their versions of MasterChef includes:
Arab League
Albania
Algeria
Argentina
Asia
Australia
Bangladesh
Belgium (Dutch-language only)
Brazil
Bulgaria
Canada (English-language only)
Chile
China
Colombia
Croatia
Czech Republic
Denmark
Finland
France
Germany
Greece
Hungary
Iceland
India
Indonesia
Ireland
Israel
Italy
Malaysia
Mexico
Morocco
Netherlands
New Zealand
Norway
Pakistan
Paraguay
Peru
Philippines
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Russia
Saudi Arabia
Slovakia
Slovenia
South Africa
South Korea
Spain
Sweden
Thailand
Turkey
Ukraine
United Kingdom (country that originated the program)
Uruguay
Vietnam