‘We’re feeling great!’

Masterchef judges John Torode and Gregg Wallace talk babies and brides as the popular cooking contest returns for a fifteenth series...

Presenting pals John, 53, and Gregg, 54, are already having a great year; what with ex-greengrocer Gregg expecting his first child with wife Anne-marie (Anna) Sterpini in May, and Australian chef John getting engaged to his partner, actress Lisa Faulkner, over Christmas.

MIRACLE

“Life feels great,” beams Gregg, who has revealed how he and Italian Anna – who is more than 20 years his junior – had been trying to conceive for over two years before she fell pregnant naturally with the baby they’ve already named ‘Sid’. “The doctor said it was a miracle. We were just about to start IVF. Everybody said to us, ‘Oh, just relax!’ We had a month in Tuscany and came back with a baby. It’s all about red wine and pasta!”

CELEBRATION

Gregg – who is already dad to son Tom, 21, and daughter Libby, 24, from a previous marriage – has moved his mother-in-law into the pair’s stunning Kent countryside home and tells us, “I’ve got this vision of us all out in the garden having lunch – my grown-up kids as well, and the doggies, with baby Sid crawling about. I’m taking three days off work around the birth and I’ve told [French chef and one-time fellow Masterchef judge] Michel Roux to expect me at [Michel’s Michelin-starred restaurant] Le Gavroche with a couple of family members. That’s where I’m going to celebrate.”

As for John’s engagement (he surprised former Eastenders star Lisa, 46, with a “gorgeous ring” on Christmas Day), he tells us, “Our heads are still spinning a little bit, and we haven’t really thought about much else.”

STAYING TRIM

And with Masterchef returning to BBC1 next week, John – who has four children, Jonah, 14, and Lulu, 12, with ex-wife Jessica, and Marselle, 21, and Casper, 19, from a previous relationship – says, “This series I’ve eaten some of the best ice cream that I’ve ever seen and tasted. Every so often, my children will touch me on the tummy and go, ‘You’re getting a bit podgy there, Pops’, and that means it’s time to get back on the bike and push a bit harder.”

Masterchef returns on Mon 11 Feb, 9pm, BBC1