Matt Preston

Matt Preston (born 1961) is an English-Australian food critic, food journalist and recipe writer. He is best known for his role as a judge on Network Ten's "MasterChef Australia" and his weekly national food column appears in NewsCorp's metro newspapers, with a combined reach of over 2.9 million Australians each week. It runs in Stellar magazine every Sunday and in The Adelaide Advertiser. He is also a senior editor for Delicious. and Taste magazines. Matt is also well known in Australia as a judge and co-host of MasterChef Australia as well as on Celebrity MasterChef, Junior MasterChef, MasterChef Allstars and MasterChef: The Professionals. He is also the author of four best-selling cookbooks.
Biography.
Preston is the son of British Naval historian/journalist Antony Preston. He was born in London, United Kingdom, to a Roman Catholic family and from the age of 11 was educated in Sussex Worth School, a Benedictine boarding school. He graduated from the University of Kent with a BA Hons in Politics and Government. While growing up in London in the late 1970s, he became a DJ and punk musician.
After a few stints working at City Limits and IPC Magazines ("TVTimes" and "What's on TV"), Preston relocated to Australia in October 1993. Initially he worked for IPC Magazines as their Australian TV correspondent writing about "Neighbours" and "Home & Away" for "TVTimes", "What's on TV" and "Woman's Own". He subsequently wrote for a number of Australian trade publications owned by IPC's parent company, Reed Business Publishing including "Encore", "Supermarket News" and "Counterpoint".
In 1996, Preston started writing reviews for a new Melbourne magazine, "Inside Melbourne", a role that he held until he moved on to write reviews for "The Age" in February 2000.
Preston also worked as a regular food correspondent in a number of publications, including "Taste", a supplement in the "Herald Sun", "The Courier-Mail" and "The Daily Telegraph" (Australia) newspapers and "MasterChef Magazine", "delicious." (Senior Editor), "Australian Good Taste" as the drink reviewer, "The Guardian" newspaper (UK) and "Time Out" (London). Preston was a weekly contributor to "Epicure" between 2000 and 2009, writing a weekly review of a cafe or restaurant. He also wrote a weekly column in "The Age"'s A2 and was a senior editor at Vogue Entertaining & Travel. Preston has made many appearances on Australian radio.
Today Preston is best known as the co-host and judge on "MasterChef Australia". He also works as a food columnist and regular food correspondent and his weekly national food column appears in NewsCorp's metro newspapers and has a combined reach of over 2.9 million Australians each week. It runs in "Stellar" magazine every Sunday and in "The Adelaide Advertiser". He is also a senior editor for "Delicious" and "Taste" magazines.
MasterChef Australia.
In 2009, Preston joined Gary Mehigan and George Calombaris on the judging panel of the first season of "MasterChef Australia" (Network 10), a reality television competition to find Australia's best amateur chef. Preston says that his favourite part of "MasterChef Australia" is "the joy that comes from the contestants delivering us a delicious dish that's a pleasure to eat." "MasterChef Australia" series two, series three and series eleven won the TVWeek Logie for Australia's Best Reality Series. Preston has judged all eleven series of "MasterChef Australia" (2009 - 2019), as well as "Celebrity MasterChef Australia" (2009), the first series of "Junior MasterChef Australia" (2010) and "MasterChef Australia All-Stars" (2012) with Mehigan and Calombaris.
In 2013 Preston went it alone to host "MasterChef Australia: The Professionals" with Marco Pierre White. The show premiered on 20 January 2013 and subsequently won the prestigious AACTA for Best Reality Show in the 2014 awards.
Preston is noted for the colourful suits and cravats he wears on "MasterChef".
Other television work.
Preston has also made numerous other appearances on TV shows including multiple appearances on "The Project", "Good News Week", "Studio 10", "The Living Room", "The Circle", "Rove Live", "This Week Live", "All Star Family Feud" and "Chris & Julia's Sunday Night Takeaway" (all Network 10), "ADbc" and "The Blue List" (SBS), "Compass" (ABC), "Today" and "Postcards" (both Ch9) and Coxy's Big Break (Ch7). He was also chosen as the secret reviewer in the first season of Channel Seven's My Restaurant Rules Preston has also taken small acting roles on "Offspring" (Network 10) and Lowdown (ABC) and "Neighbours" (Network 10). Previously, he has appeared on an episode of Lonely Planet Six Degrees.
On 23 October 2019, it was announced that Preston and fellow MasterChef judge Gary Mehigan would join Manu Feildel in 2020 with a new show called "Plate of Origin".
Vogue Entertaining + Travel and delicious.
Matt has been contributing to Australia's leading glossy food magazines, writing about restaurants, chefs, and leading culinary destinations. The role has taken him to more than 30 regions across Australia and the world.
Epicure and "The Age".
Matt began regularly contributing to the Epicure food section of "The Age" in February 2000. He wrote a weekly review of a cafe or ethnic eatery in his 'Unexplored' column in Epicure and in 2009 he wrote a weekly column in "The Age" on Saturday's A2 section. Preston also contributes cover stories to Epicure, for which he has won a number of awards.
Personal life.
A football fan, Preston supports Chelsea FC and Melbourne Victory. He supports the Collingwood Football Club in the AFL.
His biggest cooking triumphs are: "The national award I've won for my jam recipes and cooking a BBQ for 1,000 people at the Noosa Food and Wine Festival with some volunteers and chef mates. His favourite inspirational cooking quote: "It's not the food on the table, but the eyes across the table that matter" - Robert Castellani, chef at Melbourne's Donovan's restaurant.
Books.
"Cravat-A-Licious", launched on 1 October 2009. "Matt Preston's 100 Best Recipes, launched in 2012" "Matt Preston's Fast Fresh and Unbelievably Delicious", launched in 2013 "Matt Preston's Cook Book", launched in 2014 "Matt Preston's Simple Secrets", launched in 2015, "Matt Preston's Yummy Easy Quick", launched in 2017 (Plum/Pan Macmillan)
Accolades.
Preston has won a number of awards, both individually and as the leader of an organisation, including: