MasterChef Indonesia is an Indonesian competitive cooking reality show based on the original British series of the same name, opens to amateur and home chef. Produced by Fremantle (Season 1-3), Endemol Shine Group (Season 4-7), Banijay Group (Season 8-now), it debuted on 1 May 2011 on RCTI and has eleven seasons so far.
Format[]
MasterChef Indonesia airs two days a week from Saturday to Sunday. The competition takes place in the RCTI's studio in Kebon Jeruk, West Jakarta which is known as MasterChef Gallery and includes a large kitchen area with several cooking stations which is overlooked by a balcony, a well-stocked pantry, and a freezer.
At the audition round, the contestants have to prepare their mainstay dish for around 30 minutes. The judges can advance them to the next round based on their dishes by deciding to give them an apron or not.
In the bootcamp round, the first challenge is to have the contestants perform basic skills such as filleting a fish, peeling shrimp, etc. During that time, the judges will observe their techniques. The second challenge requires the contestants to create a dish using a prepared staple ingredient. The judges can advance them to the gallery round or eliminate them, taking their aprons, based on their cooking techniques and the taste of their dishes.
Subsequently, the formal competition typically begins following a three event cycle that takes place over two episodes, where the judges will eliminate one or even two contestants after the third event. The events typically are:
- Mystery Box: Contestants are all given a box with the same ingredients and must use only those ingredients to create a dish within a fixed amount of time. The judges will select 3 dishes based on visual appearance and technique alone to taste, and from these 3 select one winner who will gain an advantage to prevent the pressure test and advance to the next round automatically.
- Elimination Test: The judges explain to the mystery box winner the theme of the elimination test (or sometimes take the winner to the pantry) and tell of at least one advantage. The typical example of this is selecting the specific ingredient to use or dish to recreate, but can also include automatic advancement to the next round, assigning certain ingredients to specific chefs or saving one of the contestants. The rest of the contestants are then informed and collected any ingredients that has been prepared for this test with a fixed amount of time to complete the dish. Judges evaluate all dishes based on taste and visual appeal. One from the contestants with a best dish will go straight to the next round and then the judges will nominate some of the contestants with a worst dish and critique their dishes before telling them to get ready for the pressure test.
- Pressure Test: The worst performing contestants must compete against each other to make a standard dish within a very limited amount of time that requires a great degree of cooking finesse. For those contestants who pass to the next round will watch the test from the balcony. Each dish is judged on the taste, visual appeal and technique, and the losing contestant is eliminated.
- Signature Dish: Contestants are tasked with creating a dish that represented themselves and their cooking philosophy around a staple ingredient or theme.
- Duplication Test: Contestants are required to duplicate a certain dish in terms of presentation and taste.
- Skills Test: The judges explain the preparation of a specific dish, or the preparation of an ingredient. The contestant is then required to reproduce that dish in a specific time limit – typically 15–20 minutes. The judges then look the contestant's attempt and give feedback. The judges give a 1-minute penalty to a contestant who cannot prepare the ingredient or cook the dish properly before continuing the next step.
- Offsite Challenge: Challenges that must be done outside the MasterChef gallery.
Judges[]
| Seasons | Judges | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Juna Rorimpandey | Rinrin Marinka | Vindex Tengker |
| 2 | Degan Septoadji | Juna Rorimpandey | |
| 3 | Arnold Poernomo | ||
| 4 | Matteo Guerinoni | Arnold Poernomo | N/A |
| 5 | Juna Rorimpandey | Renatta Moeloek | Arnold Poernomo |
| 6 | |||
| 7 | |||
| 8 | |||
| 9 | |||
| 10 | |||
| 11 | |||
Series Overview[]
| Season | Premiered | Ended | Episodes | Contestants | Winner | Finalist(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 May 2011 | 21 August 2011 | 27 | 20 | Lucky Andreono† | Agus Sasirangan |
| 2 | 8 July 2012 | 28 October 2012 | 29 | Desi Trisnawati | Opik Hidayat | |
| 3 | 5 May 2013 | 17 August 2013 | 25 | William Gozali | Brian Wicaksono | |
| 4 | 31 May 2015 | 12 September 2015 | 30 | 30 | Luvita Hodiono | Deny Gumilang |
| 5 | 3 March 2019 | 16 June 2019 | 25 | 26 | Fani Horison | Kai Fridayassie |
| 6 | 21 December 2019 | 8 March 2020 | 24 | 28 | Eric Herjanto | Firhan Ashari |
| 7 | 26 September 2020 | 27 December 2020 | 25 | 20 | Jerry Andrean | Audrey Wicaksana |
| 8 | 29 May 2021 | 29 August 2021 | 18 | Jesselyn Lauwreen | Nadya Puteri | |
| 9 | 22 January 2022 | 24 April 2022 | 22 | Cheryl Gunawan | Palitho Aventus | |
| 10 | 24 December 2022 | 26 March 2023 | 24 | Gio Vergio | Ami Prachaya | |
| 11 | 26 August 2023 | 26 November 2023 | Belinda Christina | Kiki Singarimbun | ||
| 12 | TBA | TBA | TBA | TBA | TBA | TBA |
Spin-offs[]
Junior MasterChef Indonesia[]
Junior MasterChef Indonesia is a series featuring children from ages 7 to 13 as contestants, aiming to find the best junior chef in Indonesia. The series premiered on April 6, 2014.