After being dumped from MasterChef in 2019, the original judging trio of Matt Preston, George Columbaris and Gary Mehigan are headlining charity event Cook4India.
The event is online fundraiser for the Australian Indian Business Council’s COVID-19 Relief fund, and will see the three chefs headlining a 12 hour live cooking marathon, which is sure to be both sweaty and delicious.
According to the event’s webpage, the three are reuniting for the first time in 18 months, and “will spend 12 hours together hosting live demos and interviewing their culinary friends from around the world, whilst cooking their favourite dishes.”
Their first confirmed guest is experimental chef Heston Blumenthal.
The special will be hosted on YouTube, while viewers can pay to view on Eventbrite, with proceeds going to the fund.
MasterChef Australia has been historically very popular in India, with the event reading “Matt, Gary and George have a long association with India, having visited many times and they have many fans there.”
Preston, Columbaris and Mehigan left Network 10 in 2019 over pay disputes. At the time, 10’s now ex-CEO Paul Anderson said, “despite months of negotiation, 10 has not been able to reach a commercial agreement that was satisfactory to Matt, Gary and George.”
They were replaced in 2020 by Jock Zonfrillo, Andy Allan and Melissa Leong.
