Fresh from welcoming a brand new baby girl into the world, chef, author and entrepreneur Callum Hann has been appearing on screens cooking up a storm on MasterChef Australia: Back to Win.
And the top five contender could even return for yet another stint on the show that first found him fame aged 20 in 2010 – this time with his wife, Crystal Jagger, in tow.
Whispers are circulating that Network 10 could be introducing a new format for the 2026 season, which would see the chefs competing as teams. The format is being tested in the US, with the current season subtitled “Dynamic Duos”.
Callum tells New Idea exclusively that he would be interested in doing a doubles season, and would pick his wife to be his partner “in a heartbeat”.
“She is a spectacular cook and we’re great teammates both in life and in the kitchen,” he says. “We would do a really good job together. At the same time, it would be even harder with the kids at home.”
What happened to Callum in MasterChef?
Calum is now a father-of-three, having welcomed a baby daughter, Fleur, in June.
“Welcome to the world baby girl. We love you so much and you are the perfect addition to our little family,” Crystal and Callum shared on Instagram after Fleur’s arrival.
Fleur is the third addition to the family for Callum and Crystal, after the birth of Elle in 2020 and Henry in 2022.
It’s easy days, but can Callum envisage any of his kids following him into a culinary career down the track?
“My five-year-old daughter Elle, not only does she really enjoy cooking, but she’s got a pretty good palette and she’s the least fussy kid I’ve ever met,” Callum laughs.
“It’s quite strange. She came out at my restaurant a week or two ago and she ordered the chilli crab pasta and I was like, what kid is eating that!”
What is Callum Hann doing now?
The arrival of a baby sister to Elle means Callum – who owns Olive and Roma restaurants in Adelaide’s CBD, Lou’s Place in the Barossa Valley, and Sprout, a cooking school – is even busier than usual, but it hasn’t impacted his hunger to win MasterChef, after coming second and fourth during his previous two appearances on the show.
“You don’t get a chance to rewrite history in your life very often, and that’s the opportunity that I’ve been given,” Callum, 35, tells New Idea .
That said, returning for another stab wasn’t easy.
“The decision to come back this time around was probably the hardest one I’ve had in the three times I’ve done the show,” Callum says, admitting he “kind of expected” himself to get “reasonably far” in the competition because of his extensive experience.
“I guess because of that, knowing I’ve got a five-year-old and a three-year-old kid and now a fresh baby as well, to be away from them for a chunk of time is a big decision,” he explains.
“If I’m going to be away from them, I want to make sure that I give it my absolute all to make it worthwhile.”
Enter Callum’s competitive spirit.
“Inherently I’m a very competitive person in the first place,” he admits. “Being in a competition a couple of times before and being right to the pointy end… I guess the opportunity to have one last crack and see if I can get to the top of that pyramid was pretty alluring.”
But Callum also sees other positives in returning to the MasterChef kitchen – ones he can take away and use once the cameras stop rolling.
“I guess, at the end of the day, whilst winning would be a lovely thing, I think the other thing about that kitchen is that the nature of being poked and prodded with different challenges, different cuisines, different time limits, it does ring every little drop of creativity out of you,” he says.
“Regardless of the result, I know that when I then get back in – stuck into menu development for the restaurants and writing cooking class recipes for my cooking school Sprout and this sort of thing – that having that replenished creativity is just such a wonderful thing that you can’t quite understand if you haven’t been in the kitchen.”
Certainly, Callum feels more at home in the MasterChef kitchen than he has on any of his previous visits.
“It’s probably the most comfortable I’ve felt in the space, and most comfortable I’ve felt in my own skin, I suppose,” he says.
“Maybe the first time I was in the kitchen as a 19-year-old I had a little bit of that sort of imposter syndrome, you know. Do I deserve to be here? Am I good enough? All those kinds of things.
“Whereas now, with a 15-year-plus career in the hospitality industry behind me, I feel like I deserve the spot in the competition in the first place and I feel like I’ve got the experience range for that. No matter what the challenge is, I’m going to be able to do something that I’m reasonably happy with.”
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