When both Gregg Wallace and John Torode were fired from MasterChef following a seven-month investigation into the former’s behaviour, finding their replacements was always going to be a tall order for the BBC show. But the cooking competition’s return last night proved that it doesn’t need bawdy kitchen banter to survive – with new presenters Grace Dent and Anna Haugh bringing their own bold flavour to the format.
For almost 20 years, Wallace and Torode appeared to be the unstoppable force at the face of MasterChef, bringing a balance of sharp culinary critique and tongue-in-cheek innuendo. But Wallace’s on-screen comments – for example, saying he wanted to “take my shirt off and dive in” to a female contestant’s dessert – stopped being so funny when an investigation upheld 45 out of 83 allegations of misconduct against him last year. Torode’s exit followed shortly afterwards, with the report finding that he used an “extremely offensive racist term” – an allegation he denies.
Now, MasterChef is back with two women in charge, who bring just as much personality to the kitchen without needing to lean so heavily into their predecessors’ risqué humour.
Food critic Dent unsurprisingly has a way with words and brings a formidable presence to the MasterChef floor with her Nigella-esque outfits, meticulously fixed beehive and eye-catching jewellery. With the posture and pensiveness of a culinary Miranda Priestly, she’ll silently study the sweaty contestants prepare their dishes from a distance, before calling their hollandaise sauce “vicious” or saying their fish dish “looks like it was stolen off the kitchen surface by a cat and I’ve rescued it halfway down the garden”.
Episode two contestant Michael suffers what he describes as a “mauling” from Dent, after attempting pan-seared scallops with cinnamon, a black pudding foam and pickled radishes, inspired by the “unknown horrors of the deep” (sounds appetising!). “It looks a little bit like me if I’ve come in after a night out and just rubbed my eyes,” Dent says, adding emphatically: “Does cinnamon go with scallops? No.”
Haugh also doesn’t hold back, listing the ingredients in the black pudding foam. “Cinnamon, squid ink, Worcestershire sauce, black pudding, cranberry cream. Have we got a genius or have we got a nutty professor?”
As well as cutting criticism, Dent dishes out just as much praise, telling 29-year-old Jhané that she’s a “mistress of reinvention”, while environmental consultant Sabina’s fritters are “extraordinary, crunchy, lentil-y, oniony bullets of joy”.
From “coconutty hits” to a lemon posset that’s “sunshine in a bowl”, Dent brings a generous amount of writerly flair to her new presenting role, and chef Haugh is warm but firm with her approach to the contestants, and an utterly charming addition to the MCU (MasterChef Cinematic Universe). Unpretentious, she describes one contestant’s menu as “fancy pants”, before gleefully telling another that butter “is the fastest way to my heart”.
The chef, who’s worked with Gordon Ramsay and Philip Howard among others, won’t be sparing feelings however, telling one aspiring cook that the flavours in his pancake are “fighting in my mouth”. She adds, “They are literally flat as a pancake.”
While only time will tell whether MasterChef can keep up its reliably steady viewing figures under Dent and Haugh’s reign, they’re off to a strong start with the first three episodes. Many have already praised the new duo as “warm and comforting” and “a great team”.
With Wallace now escaping to Italy and Torode exiled to ITV, the MasterChef juggernaut is officially under new management – and Dent and Haugh’s take on the classic format is certified fresh.
