Zumbo has appeared on every season of Masterchef, starting with setting a croquembouche challenge in season 1. His fifth appearance in 2010 challenged contestants to recreate his raspberry-beetroot and black olive macaron "tower of terror". Within three days of the episode airing, he had sold 5000 macarons at his Balmain shop, quadruple the normal rate. Zumbo's vanilla V8 cake was featured as a challenge dish in the 2010 season of Masterchef, and has layers of vanilla glaze, crème chantilly, water gel, macaron, brulee, chiffon, syrup, ganache, almond crunch and almond dacquoise. The cake had originally been created in honour of Margaret Fulton's 85th birthday, and was so named for its eight textures of vanilla. In June 2016, the same layered cake was listed as number 8 in Good Food's 2016 top 10 cult desserts in Sydney.
