Matt Preston

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.

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.

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.

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)

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 SussexWorth 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.