Matt Preston

Matt Preston is a food journalist restaurant critic and Television Personality. Recently Matt joined News Ltd to write a new column for the Taste Section. Previous to this appointment Matt wrote for The Age newspaper’s food section, "Epicure", and Vogue Entertaining + Travel . Best known as a judge on MasterChef Australia, Preston continues writing for delicious magazines, and is a former Creative Director of the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival.

Preston was educated at St Phillips Preparatory School in London and Worth Abbey in Sussex and graduated from the University of Kent with a BA Hons in Politics and Government. He began his career in the sales and marketing departments of British magazines, including City Limits where he wrote the "Backhanders" column for five years. He then spent four years with UK magazines, TVTimes and What’s on TV, becoming head of their promotions and marketing department. In 1993, Preston moved to Australia where he worked as an Australian soap opera correspondent for British magazines What’s On TV, TVTimes and Women’s Own.

Preston’s ‘Taste’ column will appear in The Courier Mail, The Daily Telegraph, The Herald Sun, The Adelaide Advertiser, and The Sunday Times in Perth. Prior to joining New Ltd he was the regular food correspondent on a number of publications, including Epicure, A2 and Vogue Entertaining & Travel (Senior Editor). He will continue on as Delicious (Senior Editor).

Other contributions have been as Australian Good Taste as the drink reviewer, The Guardian newspaper (UK) and Time Out (London). Preston was the weekly contributor to Epicure since 2000.Preston is a contributor to The Age Good Food Guide and Food and Wine (US).

In 2003, 2004 and 2006, Preston won Food Media Club of Australia awards for articles that appeared in the "Epicure" section of The Age, and in 2008 he won the Food Journalist of the Year Award at the Le Cordon Bleu World Food Media Awards, for articles published in delicious and "Epicure". Previous positions include five years as the National Chief Judge for Restaurant and Catering's National Awards for Excellence. Preston was the Creative Director of the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival for five years from 2005-2009.

Preston has been a guest many times on radio including on Denis Walter's show on 3AW, and on 774 ABC Melbourne. He has also co-hosted a number of times including with Fifi Box on Melbourne's Fox FM and Lindy Burns on ABC774. During the first season of MasterChef Australia he made a number of radio appearances to promote the show including Nova 100, Vega (Sydney) with Tony, Mikey and Bec, Vega (Melbourne) with Dicko, Dave and Chrissy, WSHF with Amanda and Jonesy, Mix (Sydney) with Todd and Sonia, ABC774 with Richard Stubbs, Gold FM with Grubby and Dee and FM breakfast shows in Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth.

Preston has appeared on Network 10's 9am with David and Kim, SBS’s Blue List, Channel 9's Postcards, and Channel 7's Absolutely Melbourne. He was also the "secret reviewer" on series one of Channel 7’s My Restaurant Rules.

In 2009 Preston joined Gary Mehigan and George Calombaris on the judging panel of the first season of MasterChef Australia, a reality television competition to find Australia's best amateur chef. He says that his favourite part of being on MasterChef Australia is that "it’s been the joy that comes from the contestants delivering us a delicious dish that’s a pleasure to eat." The winner of the first season MasterChef Australia, as determined by the three regular judges along with Curtis Stone was Julie Goodwin, with Poh Ling Yeow coming runner up.

Preston has appeared as a guest on the Australian talk show Rove, and the game show Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?. He was also a guest panellist on Network Ten's Before the Game and The 7pm Project. Preston has been parodied twice on Chasers War on Everything, and also on Channel Nine's The Footy Show.

Preston has also appeared on the ABC's First Tuesday Book Club and SBS's historic quiz show AD/BC and judged on Celebrity MasterChef Australia. His book Cravat-A-Licious was released on October 1, 2009. Matt also released a compilation album “Matt Preston - Music from another Platter” of music to cook to and eat by. 2010 see’s the return of Preston in the 2nd Series of MasterChef Australia.


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