MasterChef Australia: Former judge Matt Preston 'not watching' after being fired

Matt Preston, who was a MasterChef judge for 11 years before being dumped, has been grilled about his thoughts on the current season. Photo / Supplied

Former MasterChef judges Matt Preston, Gary Mehigan and George Calombaris, have been fairly quiet since the show relaunched this year with three new judges.

After 11 seasons at the helm, the trio were dumped last year and were replaced by Andy Allen, Jock Zonfrillo and Melissa Leong.

The show has been a hit this season with many crediting the new judges for breathing new life into the reality show.

View this post on Instagram

Thank you so very much for supporting @masterchefau over the last 11 years. We have loved every single moment. It is however with a heavy heart that I can confirm that season 11 was our last. We were really keen to continue but we were unable to agree to all terms for the new contract. We have enjoyed 11 wonderful years on Masterchef Australia with Network Ten, and I want to take this opportunity to thank Ten for this amazing opportunity and for Network Ten’s backing of this very special show. We have met some beautiful people, discovered and guided some of the brightest up-and-comers in the Australian food scene, worked with the best chefs in the world in front of the camera, and with the TV industry’s finest professionals behind the scenes. And of course, we three judges have formed a lifelong friendship that will live on far beyond the show. I want to take this opportunity to thank you and everyone who has shared our amazing journey with us - especially all those fantastic contestants. I look forward to sharing many more adventures with you in the future. And finally I wish the new judges all the best with the show that we love so much. Thank you all. I don’t want to take any gloss off tonight’s well deserved winner so I will not be making any further comment. Love Matt.

A post shared by Matt Preston (@mattscravat) on Jul 23, 2019 at 2:10am PDT

Many fans have wondered what the former judges think of the current season, and this morning Preston was asked exactly that during an interview with Nova's Fitzy and Wippa.

"Have you been watching?" Fitzy asked.

"No, I haven't," Preston said.

"You're a dog, mate," Fitzy joked.

The former judge continued: "You know what it is – you might move across (to a different radio network) … but you still love all the people you work with at Nova and you want them to do well. Especially with a TV production, like MasterChef employs about 120 people down in Melbourne so it's really important that those people have a job."

Preston's not the only former judge not watching MasterChef this year.

Gary Mehigan revealed on the Food Bytes podcast with Sarah Patterson that he too hasn't caught an episode of the latest series which features some of the best contestants from the previous 11 seasons.

"I'm really excited about the new phase of my life," Mehigan said on the podcast. "We had one-off, once-in-a-lifetime experiences with those contestants. I don't need to see them have another go."

To be fair, both Preston and Mehigan have been busy lately filming their new Channel 7 show, Plate Of Origin, with Manu Feildel.

"I'm in the beautiful position of being an old man who's got a new job which is unbelievable, working for Seven and doing Plates," Preston said on Nova this morning.