Cooking with the Stars
Shirley Ballas, Harry Judd and AJ Odudu promise blood, sweat, tears (and lashings of butter) as eight celebrity novices do battle in new UTV show Cooking With The Stars
As head judge on Strictly Come Dancing, Shirley Ballas is usually a vision of composed elegance. Take her away from the dancefloor and put her in a kitchen, however, and it’s a different story. ‘Frankly, I can’t cook,’ she says. ‘Could I do a plain roast dinner? Yes. Can I make a baked potato? Yes. But I have no refinement at all, especially when it comes to sauces or slicing vegetables.’
She bursts into giggles, recalling a plate of spaghetti she cooked for her partner of two-and-a-half years, theatre actor Danny Taylor, which was so inedible that she ended up throwing it in the bin.
‘It was like wallpaper paste,’ she hoots.
Which doesn’t make Shirley, 60, the most obvious choice for a new six-part cookery contest that pits her chopping, simmering, roasting and basting skills against those of seven other celebrities. But then again, being a bit of a novice might just add to the fun.
If this sounds like familiar territory in the mould of The Great Celebrity Bake Off, there’s one notable difference: each celebrity on Cooking With The Stars is paired with a professional chef mentor who is tasked with taking them from passionate amateur to restaurant-level cook.
‘It’s like Strictly, except in the
‘My spaghetti was like wallpaper paste’ SHIRLEY BALLAS
kitchen,’ says one of Shirley’s rivals, intrepid TV presenter AJ Odudu, 33. ‘You’ve got professional pairings, the meals are like the routines they have to learn, and then at the end there’s the equivalent of a dance off, except it’s a cook off.’
It’s a fair comparison, given that many of the celebrity cooks are novices and the professional chefs effectively become rivals too via their protégés. ‘We all wanted to win the competition, but of course it wasn’t us doing the cooking, it was the celebrities; we could only give them the tools to make it work then stand back and watch,’ says Rosemary Shrager, 70, who mentors comedian Johnny Vegas. ‘But I blamed myself every time something went wrong. I thought I wasn’t good enough.’
The format sees the eight celebrities produce a different dish against the clock each week, with the guidance of their mentor. The dish is then judged by the other professionals. The two voted bottom each week must then fight for their right to remain in the competition by creating a dish without any help from their tutor. The result of this cook off is decided in a blind tasting by all the professional chefs — which means they could unwittingly vote off their own apprentice.
Taking part alongside Shirley, AJ and Johnny are McFly drummer Harry Judd, TV presenter Denise Van Outen, comedian Griff Rhys Jones, former Coronation Street actress Catherine Tyldesley and DJ Naughty Boy. The Voice’s Emma Willis and Bake Off: The Professionals host Tom Allen co-present the show. It’s an eclectic crowd, although by all accounts everyone got along famously, having bubbled together in a hotel for 11 days before the intense six-day filming schedule. In fact they formed such firm friendships that all manner of meet-ups are planned in the future. The atmosphere at Magazine’s photoshoot today confirms this — everyone seems genuinely delighted to see each other again. ‘It’s the most fun I’ve had on a TV show,’ says Harry Judd.
Make no mistake though, while there was camaraderie in the kitchen there was intense rivalry too. ‘Everyone wanted to do their best. There was a bit of blood and sweat. And there were tears as well — I mean literally a couple of people cried,’ reveals Harry, 35. It turns out the blood is literal as well. ‘I managed to cut myself
‘I think I was the only one without a plaster’ AJ ODUDU
several times,’ he adds. ‘Thirty seconds into the first meal I was cooking I sliced off the end of a finger with a potato peeler.’
Harry was in good company here, as Shirley also sliced off the top of her finger early on. ‘There was blood everywhere,’ she says. ‘To be honest, everywhere you looked someone was sporting a plaster. The poor first-aid man on set was in and out like nobody’s business. Johnny burned his hand at one point, so he had a big bandage on too.’ Shirley couldn’t have hoped for better chemistry with her pro chef Joseph Denison Carey, who’s proved a hit with viewers on This Morning. Not only is he ‘a beautifully raised young man’, she says, but a superstar in the making and an excellent mentor. ‘He’s young but he’s a natural born teacher. He’s very thorough and patient, just a kind soul. He suited my temperament really well.’
Nonetheless, she’s still baffled by quite how much effort it takes to produce a decent meal. In fact she’s still hyperventilating over a dish that required ten packets of butter in the pan. ‘Ten!’ she exclaims, eyebrows raised. ‘And that was just one part of it. There was a lot going on — ingredients, bowls, sieves, scales. Which knife do you cut this with? How many pounds of that do I need? It was a lot to take in.’
That’s what makes it fun to watch, of course. ‘I think everyone can relate to cooking dramas, can’t they?’ says Harry, a father of two with his wife Izzy (baby number three will join Lola, five, and three-year-old Kit in October) who admits he doesn’t really cook at home. ‘Part of the reason I was tempted to do the show was because I love a challenge and I wanted to learn something new. Izzy thought it was hilarious when I signed up, as did my mum… in fact as did everyone I know! I cooked the other day for my family — I’d never done it before and I was nervous. The stakes are high.’
AJ Odudu first made her name presenting Big Brother spin-off A Bit On The Side, and in 2019 she took part in Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins, in which she jumped out of a helicopter, plunged into freezing water and carried 45kg weights uphill.
Next up she’ll be helping people get their businesses back on track after lockdown with Emma Willis in Emma And AJ Get To Work.
So whipping up a soufflé must be a doddle, right? Wrong. ‘I honestly had sleepless nights during this,’ she confides. ‘Beforehand I thought, “I’m an all right cook and it’s just going to be a laugh.” But then under the time pressure, in a studio filled with top chefs, it’s really nerve-racking. I was trembling at times.’
The presenter was tempted to do the show in the hope of adding a few more dishes to a limited list. ‘Basically, I’ve got five recipes in my locker that I made repeatedly throughout lockdown — hotpot, steak and chips, a few Nigerian dishes I learned from my mum — and I thought what better way to come out of the most ridiculously tough year ever than to be paired with a top chef and have the opportunity to expand my repertoire?’ she says.
AJ quickly developed a friendly rivalry with ‘adopted brother’ Harry and bonded with her mentor Jack Stein, who is now blazing a culinary trail alongside that of his father, Rick. ‘Jack was always calm,’ she says.
‘Timekeeping was my biggest challenge. And did you know you could burn oil? On the plus side, I think I was the only one who didn’t end up with a blue plaster on my finger.’