Gregg Wallace’s MasterChef replacement has finally been announced, with Saturday Kitchen host Matt Tebbutt set to take over for the next series of MasterChef: The Professionals. The 51-year-old TV chef is a well-liked, pub-loving family man and has been described by The Telegraph as the “safe pair of hands the show needs”.
This will come as a relief to MasterChef fans. The show has been in turmoil since Wallace stepped down in 2024 following accusations of sexual harassment. An independent investigation substantiated 45 of 83 total complaints against Wallace – mostly involving inappropriate sexual language and humour.
Then, in July, a second scandal hit the MasterChef studio, with remaining presenter John Torode sacked after a complaint of racism was upheld. Torode has said the accusation related to the use of a severely offensive racist term in 2018. In a statement, the BBC said: “John Torode denies the allegation. He has stated he has no recollection of the alleged incident and does not believe that it happened. He also says that any racial language is wholly unacceptable in any environment.”
Who is Matt Tebbutt?
Matt Tebbutt was born on Christmas Eve 1973 in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. His childhood was primarily spent in South Wales, where he moved at six months old. He attended Rougemont School in Newport before pursuing Geography and Anthropology at Oxford Brookes University, where he considered a career in the RAF.
But Tebbutt always loved food. “I grew up greedy. I loved coming home from school, getting a jar of Hellmann’s mayonnaise and dipping Twiglets into it, which is probably why I was so fat,” he told The Times in 2024.
Tebbutt earned his culinary stripes at the esteemed Leiths School of Food & Wine in London. His early training included working under heavyweights like Marco Pierre White (at The Oak Room and Criterion), Bruce Poole, Sally Clarke, and Alastair Little — whom he credits as the greatest culinary influence behind his cooking.
In 2001, Tebbutt and his wife Lisa returned to Wales and transformed the Foxhunter pub in Nant-y-derry into a celebrated restaurant. It was awarded the AA Restaurant of the Year for Wales in 2004. In 2012, Matthew Norman reviewed the restaurant for The Telegraph, calling the food “top notch” and describing the atmosphere as one of “raucous merriment”.
Tebbutt has been effusive about his love for pubs, calling them “one of the last melting pots there are in life.”
“I will disappear on a Friday and go and do Saturday Kitchen. And then I’ll meet some quite famous faces sometimes, get back to the pub [near his home in Monmouthshire], and nobody gives a monkey’s! They really don’t care, and it’s great,” he told The Independent last year.
Tebbutt ran and owned The Foxhunter until 2014, when he decided to switch focus to his television career.
From kitchen to camera
After guest-presenting on Saturday Kitchen in 2009, standing in for James Martin, Tebbutt eventually took over the mantle permanently in 2016.
His screen presence extends well beyond Saturdays. He co-presents Food Unwrapped on Channel 4 and has appeared on Market Kitchen, Drop Down Menu, Great British Menu and Save Money: Good Food. In lockdown, he hosted Daily Kitchen Live, offering practical cooking advice to families in need, alongside anti-poverty campaigner Jack Monroe.
In addition to his TV work, Tebbutt has authored several cookbooks. His 2008 debut, Cooks Country: Modern British Rural Cooking, was followed by Guilty Pleasures, in 2013, Weekend in 2021, and, most recently, Matt Tebbutt’s Pub Food in August 2024 — an ode to pub-style cuisine, grounded in his years running the Foxhunter.
Off-camera, Tebbutt still lives in Monmouthshire with his wife Lisa and their two children, Jessie and Henry, who are both in their 20s. He’s described his daughter as a keen cook. “My daughter is 21 and she loves cooking,” he told the Independent in 2023. “She’s like me – she’ll wake up in the morning thinking: ‘What am I going to have for lunch?’ and then she’ll think: ‘Where am I going to go for dinner?’ She loves food, she loves cooking.”
However, Jessie apparently refuses to take her father’s culinary advice. “My daughter won’t be told anything – fair enough,” Tebbutt said in the same interview. “And my son – embarrassingly or not, I don’t know – he wanted to go on a cookery course as part of his Duke of Edinburgh Award, so we sent him away for five days. I was like – I could have told you this!”
A pub-loving family man may be exactly what MasterChef needs. Tebbutt will join the chefs Marcus Wareing and Monica Galetti for the 18th series of MasterChef: The Professionals, with a transmission date yet to be confirmed.
