Is John Torode quietly savouring Tim Davie’s resignation from the BBC? It was reportedly the former director-general “drawing a line in the sand” that sealed Torode’s fate and meant the MasterChef presenter didn’t survive the allegation against him (that he used “an extremely offensive racist term”, something Torode says he doesn’t remember). In any case, Torode has outlasted his old boss, in the sense that he survives on our screens in the new series of Celebrity MasterChef.
As with the most recent series of MasterChef, which was recorded before Gregg Wallace’s sacking, we have the odd situation where an individual deemed unacceptable by the BBC is being broadcast by the BBC. The current series of Celebrity MasterChef was recorded, of course, before Torode was fired, while the celebrities were apparently consulted on whether it should go ahead. Surprise, surprise, none of them turned down the valuable exposure.
The lineup in the opening heat consists of Antony Costa of the boy band Blue, Paralympian Gaz Choudhry, Coronation Street actor Kate McGlynn, drag artist Ginger Johnson, and Love Islander-turned-influencer Uma Jammeh. But never mind them – more significantly, the new series also marks the debut of Grace Dent as Wallace’s replacement.
With Dent as a sort of anti-Wallace (her softly spoken Cumbrian brogue is the antithesis of Wallace’s cockney barrow-boy bark), and a shiny new MasterChef HQ in Birmingham, this was supposedly a new dawn for the troubled cookery longrunner. But with Torode now gone, the actual daybreak will have to wait until next year, when Irish chef Anna Haugh joins Dent as co-presenter.
Celebrity MasterChef contestants Gaz Choudhry, Kate McGlynn, Ginger Johnson, Antony Costa and Uma Jammeh (Photo: BBC/Shine TV)Dent herself expresses surprise at being given Wallace’s job, which is a surprise in itself. Surely, after so many appearances as a guest critic, she would have been astonished not to have been approached. In any case, she makes a solid if (by her own admission) nervous start, delighted to tell the celebs “your 60 minutes start now” and ladling out endless compliments. The nearest she comes to being a “feared restaurant critic” (as restaurant critics are always described on MasterChef) is when she describes Choudhry’s messy “deconstructed hummus” as “all a bit day three at Glastonbury”.
In the meantime, she admires Ginger Johnson’s earrings, something Wallace would probably not have noticed, let alone remarked upon. Johnson, a professional rugby player until a career-ending injury necessitated a career change (he won RuPaul’s Drag Race UK in 2023) is a hoot, and the producers of The Celebrity Traitors would be well-advised to consider him.
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The cookery business itself is largely as you’d expect (and I find it a tad boring after so many series). One welcome innovation is a taste-test round, where the contestants are blindfolded and eliminated if they fail to identify the food correctly. Costa comes out top here, rewarded with an extra 10 minutes on the next cookery task. It doesn’t help him, however, and his souvlaki is the worst dish of the episode.
Torode and Wallace shared good on-screen chemistry, while apparently not interacting off-screen. Do Torode and Dent have good chemistry? It’s hard to say since they’re rarely shot together. For all we know, Torode could be checking his phone when Dent supposedly looks in his direction and pronounces on a dish, and vice versa.
But given that this is now a one-off series, it hardly matters whether they bond or not. In the meantime, viewers can savour the irony of Torode telling the celebrities at the end of the opening episode, “You’re all safe for now. But soon one of you will be going home.”
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