A fight over carrots and the MKR rivalry: The biggest ever MasterChef Australia feuds.

To catch up on all things MasterChef Australia 2020, make sure you check out our MasterChef hub. We’ve got you completely covered.

MasterChef Australia really is the kind of reality TV show we need right now.

The new all stars format welcomed back 24 of the best contestants from previous Masterchef seasons along with three shiny new judges: chef Jock Zonfrillo, food writer Melissa Leong, and former MasterChef winner Andy Allen.

So far, so wholesome.

The trailer for MasterChef Australia 2020. Post continues below video.

There’s been enthusiasm, good food, tight competitions and (pre-social distacing) high fives and hugs. When so much is uncertain, we’re pleased we can switch on to MasterChef for positivity and deconstructed meals on the reg.

Unlike so many other reality shows, MasterChef is not known for its drama. The focus is on the food, not (manufactured) scandals.

But that doesn't mean all is always well in the MasterChef world. The series is now in its 11th year, and over the years there's certainly been a number of feuds and drama behind-the-scenes, even if it didn't show on screen.

Here are the biggest MasterChef-related feuds, and uh, a lot of them relate to the show's biggest competitor, My Kitchen Rules:

Marco Pierre White vs Matt Preston.

In 2016 British chef Marco Pierre White's son Marco Pierre White Jnr was cast in Celebrity Big Brother UK, during which he was filmed having sex with a co-star.

It was aired on British television - a decision blasted by his famous chef father - and after Matt Preston commented on the controversy during a radio interview on the Kyle and Jackie O show, it ignited a feud between the pair.

During the interview, Preston suggested Pierre White Jnr was off the rails.

"I think it is that terrible thing when you have kids that go off the rails, how do you deal with it?" he told the radio hosts.

"I don't know. I don't think Marco has a solution, I don't think anyone has a solution."

He then claimed Pierre White Jnr may be involved with drugs.

"I think there is absolutely nothing wrong with your children having a highly evolved social life but I think the drugs might be a little bit of a worry," he said.

Pierre White then vowed "on his mother's grave" to get back at Preston for the perceived betrayal.

"The things he said about my son in the British press were disgraceful," he said. "No one should ever say that about someone else's children. I will never forgive that man."

White said Preston was a "canary in the coalmine" and vowed revenge on him, claiming "with my hand on my mother’s grave I will get that man".

My Kitchen Rules vs MasterChef.

There is no love lost between the country's two biggest cooking shows.

Last year, MKR judge Colin Fassnidge said his show was more realistic for the average Aussie.

"Their food, sometimes even for me, is serious," he told Yahoo. "That's the problem they have with their one. I couldn't even cook what was on the show. It went too far, and ours, we needed to ramp it up a bit, but it's food you cook at home."

In 2018, Matt Preston said he believed the Channel 10 show had stood the test of time because it was about "happy tears", rather than "sad tears".

"From beginning to end, our first episode [this year] is why the show matters: the food has to be delicious and we find wonderful ways to celebrate people and their achievements," he told the Herald Sun.

"It's great that the tears are happy not sad."

Preston said celebrity guests - including high profile chefs like Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsey, and even Prince Charles and the Dalai Lama - appeared on the show because the show was about cooking rather than drama.

"They like the fact contestants aren't there to be targets for barbs," he said. "They're there to be respected and to be celebrated and pushed forward, which is the great joy of the show."

Years earlier MasterChef judge Gary Mehigan had called MKR "a blatant rip-off".

"The set looks similar to ours and the phrases are the same," he told TV Week.

Colin Fassnidge vs Matt Preston.

According to MKR's Colin Fassnidge, his long-standing feud with Matt Preston started over a late night meal.

"Preston is dicing these carrots, it's taken him about half an hour and he's starting to fry them and I'm over asking 'Are you happy with this? Does the sauce taste alright? Are you sure? Are you going to get through to the next round?' Fassnidge explained to Nova's Fitzy and Wippa in 2019 , saying Preston was "getting a little antsy" and told him to get out of the kitchen.

Then they sat down to eat.

"I start judging him on the spaghetti bolognese and I'm sitting at the table with a food face saying 'the carrots are a bit crunchy', and he blows up and comes down the table after me. I go 'calm down, I'm only joking!'"

Fassnidge said Preston still hadn't forgotten the feud, which took place after a day out at the Melbourne Cup: "I met him at a function a few weeks ago and he's like 'you and those f*cking carrots'. The carrots killed him."

Matt Preston vs Pete Evans.

We're getting the feeling Matt Preston enjoys a feud.

In April 2019, Preston told The Sunday Telegraph he'd happily invite MKR judge Manu Feidel on a boys trip, but Pete Evans was another story.

"Pete might be a bit too virtuous," he said, when asked of the prospect of the MKR judges joining him, George Calombaris and Gary Mehigan on a Euro food tour.

However, they're big fans of Feidel.

"We love Manu," Preston said.

"I could easily imagine Colin [Fassnidge] coming away with us [also], they'd fit in absolutely perfect."

In 2016, Preston mocked Evans' staunch advocacy for the paleo diet during a MasterChef challenge.

"I'm going to continue my anti-paleo crusade by using grains and dairy," he said, announcing he was cooking a "classic baked cheesecake".

Sophia Pou vs MasterChef.

Sophia Pou, who appeared on My Kitchen Rules in 2013, threw a little shade MasterChef's way in an opinion piece for news.com.au in 2016.

She said she couldn't watch MasterChef because the show focused on the food and didn't show "the drama and backstories of the contestants".

"I just literally can't do it. It doesn't resonate with me on a personal level, nor am I connected to the contestants through shared life experiences.

"I think the reason for this is that their backstories, and individual personalities are so suppressed by the format of the show, that they lose any form of individually that makes them memorable in my mind.

"I can't even distinguish any of them by name, past or present contestants. They might as well be assigned a number, to be called out by the judges."

She said she didn't want to blast any MasterChef contestant or others affiliated with the show, but was tired of the discussion about whether MKR or MasterChef was "the more respectable show".

"To me, it's obvious," she said, citing the MKR audition process which only requires contestants to cook once, compared to a number of times for MasterChef, as one reason why.

"The world truly is an oyster for each and every MKR contestant, during and after the show ends," Pou wrote.

"Now tell me all you MasterChef snobs and food industry elitists, what could possibly be wrong with that?"

Iain 'Huey' Hewitson vs... the entire MasterChef concept.

In 2018, TV chef Iain Hewitson said MasterChef was "pretentious" during an interview with A Current Affair.

"They started off simple, and the next minute you turn around and they're doing deconstructed rubbish with smears on the plate," he said.

"I think the problem with the shows is they do a terrible disservice to the public because they make all the food look so complicated."

For more on this topic:

• “THIS IS SO GOOD ALREADY”: The best reactions to Masterchef Australia being back on TV.
• “We’re really going to do that?” A behind-the-scenes look at the new MasterChef Australia.
• Poh’s ex-husband married her best friend. This is how it works.

Feature images: Channel 10 and Getty.