Matt Preston certainly hasn’t been resting on his laurels after the stupendous success of the first MasterChef Australia series. The food critic and writer who won audiences over as a MasterChef judge, has been busy expanding his empire, with books and CD projects in the works.

“I’ve been pulling together a book of my ‘least worst’ food writing from the last decade that has been published as Cravat-a-licious,” explains Matt. “I am also working on a compilation CD with Sony BMG which is packed with songs hand picked as the perfect soundtrack to cook to or eat to…I’ve also tried my hand at a few other TV shows and got terrified by doing 5th Grader and The 7pm Project. And there was a trip around the world eating at the best five restaurants in the world, which was an amazing experience!”

With Celebrity MasterChef kicking off this Wednesday at 7.30pm, Matt’s been happily reunited with his fellow judges, George Calombaris and Gary Mehigan. “I love it!” Matt says of being back in the MasterChef kitchen. “It’s great to be back with the boys. It’s great to meet so many Australian heroes. And it’s fun to watch them sweat over the crazy challenges we set them in the kitchen. It’s a great way of seeing a whole new side of the celebs.”

So which celebrity’s fare is Matt most looking forward to tasting? “They all excite me - seeing someone’s food is to look through a window into their soul!”