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Lisa Cam

For much of the world, Asian cuisine is often seen as just a menu category rather than a rich tapestry of histories from a vast continent. A few familiar dishes have come to represent thousands of regional techniques, ingredients, migrations and memories.
The reboot of MasterChef Asia, after a decade off the air, seeks to change that by placing the region’s home cooks, flavours and ambition on screen.
Having Asian cuisine represented and judged by chefs with deep, personal connections to the region is important. Chefs Edward Lee, Pichaya “Pam” Soontornyanakij and Kelvin Cheung will not simply decide whose dish is best. They will help define what it means to represent Asia now, an evolving conversation among cultures.
“This is MasterChef Asia, not MasterChef Thailand, the Philippines or India,” says Cheung, who runs modern Chinese restaurants Jun’s and Jooksing in Dubai. “A champion must be able to move beyond a single comfort zone and represent modern global cuisine and modern techniques.”

A continent under the spotlight
The new judges are adamant that the region’s food deserves a broader yet more nuanced perspective.
Lee, a breakout star from the first season of Netflix’s Culinary Class Wars, says curiosity about Asian food is at “an all-time high”. That curiosity, he hopes, can move past the familiar shorthand of noodles, fried rice and a few celebrated classics.
“Asian food is so diverse,” he says. “There’s so many layers, so many histories. Every region has its own specific story.”
Pichaya, chef of Michelin-starred Restaurant Potong in Bangkok, points to the diversity within countries themselves. India, she notes, cannot be reduced to one familiar dish when its northern and southern traditions hold so much more to discover.
The new season, she says, is an opportunity to shine a light on “lesser-known flavours and food from Asia.” At the same time, contemporary cooking does not mean leaving history behind.
“In Thailand, chefs are experimenting with fermentation again, which we did a lot because [our ancestors] didn’t have fridges,” she says. “It’s very interesting to see that, moving forward, we’re moving back in a way.”
Cheung’s perspective is similarly personal. Lauded as the pioneer of “third-culture cuisine”, the chef was often referred to as “the Canadian” in his father’s Chinese kitchen and later as “the weird Asian kid” in Western fine-dining kitchens. The experiences made him acutely aware of the limitations imposed on Asian chefs. A chef of Chinese heritage, for example, should not automatically be expected to cook only Chinese food, he says – the point of MasterChef Asia is to embrace the diversity and complexity of the whole region.

Representing Asian food today
The original run of MasterChef Asia in 2015 established a regional stage for talented home cooks, but ran for only one season to give way to more country-specific editions such as MasterChef Singapore in 2018.
This reboot is deliberately not built around nostalgia. Lee says the team is trying to define the season “as a stand-alone and something exceptional”, representing Asian food as it is today and bringing a fresh, innovative face of Asia to the screen.
The returning franchise invites 10 alumni contestants from previous MasterChef seasons, including the popular Vietnamese-Australian chef Khanh Ong – a fan favourite and finalist from MasterChef Australia – and Malaysian pastry chef Marcus Low, who appeared in the original MasterChef Asia.
The reboot is especially relevant in the social-media era. Lee says the gap between professional chefs and home cooks has narrowed because recipes, images and techniques are now readily available online.
“There’s no excuse any more,” he says. “You have access to everything.”
Pichaya agrees, adding that social media has opened up possibilities, but cautions that access does not guarantee originality. The real challenge, she says, is creating something that is genuinely one’s own rather than a copy of what is already online.
Cheung puts the issue more bluntly: “Social media flavour is not always going to be real flavour.”
There are no bonus points for a plate with 800 garnishes if a three-ingredient fried rice is executed better
Kelvin Cheung, MasterChef Asia 2026 judge
The new season will not be a competition in which visual spectacle alone triumphs. The judges will be looking for dishes that are personal, but also delicious; innovative but rooted in a coherent idea; visually striking but technically sound.
Asked what separates a good dish from a winning one, Pichaya says flavour comes first. “It has to be something that makes me want to eat it again and again,” she says.
Cheung emphasises execution, from texture and planning to every component on the plate. Lee concludes that the best dishes transport the judges into a contestant’s story and thought process, while still getting the details right.
The qualities to survive
The judging will not treat traditional food as untouchable, or innovation as an automatic virtue. Lee says there are objective parameters across cuisines such as balance, texture, seasoning and proper technique.
Pichaya offers a more emotional test: a radically reworked dish can still be right if, when tasted, it feels familiar and “like home”.
Cheung’s formulation is characteristically practical. “There are no bonus points for a plate with 800 garnishes if a three-ingredient fried rice is executed better,” he says.
The contestants, meanwhile, will be assessed as individuals as well as cooks. Lee wants them to infuse food with story, heritage and personality rather than merely replicate a recipe.
Cheung adds that grit, confidence, passion, and the capacity to adapt when something goes wrong are the high-pressure qualities required to survive.
The judges see their role as more than critics; they want to mentor contestants towards the chefs they may become.
And what of the trio’s on-screen chemistry? There is always the funny judge, the mean judge and the nice judge. The chefs’ playful response offers a glimpse: Pichaya is the nice one, Cheung is the funny one, and Lee – while clearly happy to be called many things – prefers to be known as “the honest one” or “the professor” rather than the mean one.
MasterChef Asia streams on HBO Max and TLC from September 22, and Discovery Channel from September 23.


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Food & Drink

We talk to chefs Edward Lee, Pichaya ‘Pam’ Soontornyanakij and Kelvin Cheung on the new series returning to screens after a decade off air


We talk to chefs Edward Lee, Pichaya ‘Pam’ Soontornyanakij and Kelvin Cheung on the new series returning to screens after a decade off air.


Fame and celebrity

Chinese cuisine

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What to expect from MasterChef Asia 2026? Judges open up on series’ comeback

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}We talk to chefs Edward Lee, Pichaya ‘Pam’ Soontornyanakij and Kelvin Cheung on the new series returning to screens after a decade off air

We talk to chefs Edward Lee, Pichaya ‘Pam’ Soontornyanakij and Kelvin Cheung on the new series returning to screens after a decade off air