Matt Preston

Biography

Preston is the son of well-respected British Naval historian/journalist Antony Preston. He was born in London, United Kingdom, to a Roman Catholic family and from the age of 12 was educated in Sussex at 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 stints working at City Limits and IPC Magazines (TVTimes & 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, Matt 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 works 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 in a number of publications including Taste, a weekly colour supplement in the Herald Sun, The Courier-Mail, Adelaide Advertiser, and Daily Telegraph (Australia) newspapers. This column is also syndicated to the Sunday Times in Perth and The Mercury is Tasmania. Matt is a senior editor at delicious. magazine, and columnist at taste.com.au magazine.

Masterchef

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 series one and series two both won the TVWeek Logie for Australia’s Best Reality Series. Preston has judged all nine series of MasterChef Australia (2009 - 2017), as well as Celebrity MasterChef (2009), the first series of Junior MasterChef (2010) and Masterchef 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.

Other television work: Matt 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 and Rove Live (all Network 10). He has also appeared on This Week Live (10), ADBC and The Blue List (SBS), Compass (ABC), The Today Show 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).

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. He is currently Vogue Entertaining's restaurant reviewer, focusing on Australia's influential restaurant openings.

Epicure and The Age

Matt began regularly contributing to the Epicure food section of The Age in February 2000. He writes a weekly review of a cafe or ethnic eatery in his 'Unexplored' column in Epicure and, since February 2009, has written 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.

Other professional roles

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, a collection of food writing, was launched on 1 October 2009. Matt Preston's 100 Best Recipes (Plum/Pan Macmillan) was launched 23 October 2012. He is a contributor to Food and Wine (US).

Accolades

Preston has won a number of awards, both individually and as the leader of an organisation, including: