Six Winning Recipes by Masterchef Contestants

We’ve been cheering, critiquing and crying over Masterchef contestants’ work from the comfort of our couches since the series first launched in 2009. With 17 seasons under its belt, the competitive cooking show has gifted us a whopping amount of talent, with alumni churning out plenty of cookbooks in the years since their TV debuts.

Here, we’ve rounded up a bunch of recipes by our favourite contestants. Add quick noodles by Adam Liaw and Diana Chan to your weeknight repertoire. Whip up desserts from Emelia Jackson and Reynold Poernomo. Or put your love of the potato to the test with Julie Goodwin’s pillowy gnocchi.

Want to know where Laura Sharrad, Callum Hann and more love to eat when they’re not on the clock? Right this way.

Adam Liaw’s quick chicken noodles

Winner winner speedy-chicken-noodle dinner – there’s a reason this is our most popular recipe of the year so far. Pulled from the pages of Adam Liaw’s latest cookbook, Time for Dinner, this recipe employs a fast braising method for cooking noodles that delivers maximum flavour with minimal effort. It’s the ultimate weeknight feed that you’ll have on repeat.

Diana Chan’s mee goreng

Put down the Indomie – this Malaysian-style mee goreng comes together in just 30 minutes and is coated in a rich, slightly spicy, sauce. Taken from The Golden Wok – a book that celebrates the versatility of the wok and gives instructions for buying, seasoning and cleaning a wok – there’s only a handful of steps between turning on your stove and sitting down to an umami-rich bowl of noodles. Chan recommends using fresh Hokkien egg noodles – you’ll notice the difference.

Emelia Jackson’s chocolate-chip cookies

These cookies are so nice, Jackson has featured them in her cookbooks twice – and we can almost guarantee they’ll feature in your kitchen on the regular once you have your first bite. Best described as hitting that chewy-crispy sweet spot, these cookies are overloaded with chocolate. Alongside the classic choc-chip recipe, Jackson offers several alternatives, including a white chocolate, sour cherry and pistachio version, and one with blueberry, lemon and white chocolate. Read to the bottom of the recipe for swaps, as well as tips for achieving a perfectly round cookie.

Julie Goodwin’s gnocchi with speck and peas

Fresh pasta on the table in under an hour? Julie Goodwin has got your back with this gnocchi recipe from her cookbook Classic. “This is a sticky dough that requires little handling and comes out light as a feather,” Goodwin writes. The pillowy potato dumplings are served up in a creamy sauce spiked with crispy batons of speck and baby peas. Spring is within reach.

Justin Narayan’s fried fish sando with curry tartare

Fijian Indian cook Justin Narayan takes inspiration from “the worst item at McDonald’s” – the Filet-O-Fish – for this fresh take on the fish sando. Homemade tartare is the (literal) secret sauce in this recipe, which comes from Narayan’s debut cookbook, Everything Is Indian. He recommends using hake or snapper, but says you can sub in frozen fish fingers “if you’re feeling lazy”.

Reynold Poernomo’s burnt honey Basque cheesecake

Reynold Poernomo’s relentless pursuit of perfection is what gave him the nickname “dessert king” after his appearance on 2020’s Back To Win series of Masterchef. But until then, the Koi Dessert Bar owner had barely even heard of a Basque cheesecake. Ever since a trip to Hart Bageri bakery in Copenhagen, he’s been obsessed with the “almost mousse-like texture” of a thick wedge of Basque cheesecake. His take is finished with a honey glaze, which should have the consistency of liquid glucose when you’re brushing it over the cake.

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