Daily Mail - Daily Mail Weekend Magazine
THEY’RE GOOD SPORTS... BUT CAN THEY COOK?
It’s all very well being a champ in your chosen field, but cutting the mustard on Celebrity Masterchef is a different kettle of fish – as Judy Murray, Gethin Jones, John Barnes and Sam Quek found out
Judy Murray, surely one of Britain’s most famous mothers, has her chef’s hat on (metaphorically speaking) and is sharing a recipe for a truly scrumptious dessert she used to make for her sons when they were little. Let me just get a pen, Judy... oh, maybe no need. ‘Take a couple of chocolate mini-rolls and put them in the microwave just long enough for the chocolate to soften. Then put ice-cream on top,’ she says. That’s it? Gosh.
Not all her nostalgiaheavy puddings from her sons’ childhood are so easy though, it transpires. Some involve finding a tin opener too, which is still something of a family joke. ‘My kids accuse me of serving them up tinned pears and tinned custard, and I say, “Well, you loved tinned pears and custard, and look at the two of you now, fine strapping young men. It didn’t do you any harm, did it?”’
Well, no, given that both her sons, Andy and Jamie, went on to become tennis champions and era-defining examples of the power of a mother’s influence. Did Judy (now a grandmother) spend more time slaving over the stove for main courses? Nope. She admits that when she did cook for her boys it tended to be something quick and easy ‘like fish fingers or sausages’, so they could all be out of the door for tennis training. ‘I did use a slow cooker quite a bit. I could chuck everything in,’ she remembers. Mostly, though, she did what most busy working mums long to do: she ran to Marks & Spencer, probably still in her trademark tracksuit. ‘I was always very much of the opinion that why do it yourself when M&S can do it better?’
She refuses to feel even a smidgeon of guilt, which is refreshing. ‘I never did buy into the idea that being in the kitchen was women’s work, and look at the fact that all the top chefs are men. I was so busy it was never a priority. Cooking was a chore rather than something to enjoy.’
Suffice to say that finding out take-no-prisoners Judy Murray is in the line-up for the new series of Celebrity Masterchef is quite the treat. She says her interest in cooking was first awakened when she decided, aged 60, that she should start to learn. Then she got the Masterchef invite, and was swayed by the fact that she’d been on Strictly Come Dancing at the same time as host Gregg Wallace in 2014.
She says her family found it hysterical that she signed up, but she might have the last laugh – it turns out she has discovered a passion for the kitchen. And for cake, it seems. ‘Immediately after filming Masterchef we went into lockdown and I was on my own in the house. I decided there was no excuse now. I had to build on what I’d learned on the show and I set myself a target of making a new recipe every three days.
‘I started with baking, but I had to stop because I was eating everything. One day I made a lovely coconut cake with jam in the middle and icing on the top. Unfortunately it was so nice I ate it all, myself, in a day. I could feel my waistband getting tight so I had to say, “B **** r that” to the baking, and I moved on to cooking healthy things. Now I’ve been experimenting with all sorts of things, roasting tin dishes, different vegetables, even gluten-free stuff.
‘I’ve been cooking more than I ever have in my life. I’m watching more shows about cooking too, and I’ve got the time to read cookery books. I’m loving it.’
Wow. The combined powers of Masterchef and lockdown. Still, it’s good to welcome a new crop of stars onto our screens for Celebrity Masterchef. Each year we try to catch up with a clutch of the contenders and corral them into a photographic studio to create a cover image. That was always going to be problematic this year because of the challenges of social distancing. But four game celebs agreed to take part, and what troupers they’ve turned out to be. Judy agreed to do her own hair and make-up and is pictured near her home in Dunblane playing tennis with a sieve. We can report that she handles a tennis racket with more finesse than she does a sieve.
There’s a distinct sporting feel when we get three of the others together (two metres apart, of course). It transpires that exfootballer and now TV pundit John Barnes, 56, lives just minutes away from Olympic gold-winning hockey player Sam
Quek, 31, on the Wirral, so a photo session is held in John’s garden.
Former Blue Peter presenter and all-round action man Gethin Jones, 42, drives over from Manchester for the day, and finds the whole situation surreal. It is. The photographer is in a mask, the subjects arranged around the garden like statues and the ‘guests’ can only use the Barnes bathroom if they clean every surface afterwards. ‘I actually did Strictly with John Barnes in 2007, so we’re old mates,’ says Gethin. ‘But I never imagined I’d be in his garden, practising social distancing, watching him doing keepyuppies with a cabbage and a melon!’
In normal times they’d have a good old barbecue, with host John (who says that he tends to cook enough food for 20 people, even if there are only five diners) showing off his new cooking skills. Alas not today. Never has everyone been so hungry on a MasterChef job. Mercifully, the show itself was filmed before lockdown, and it seems that they did have a sneaky taste of each other’s cooking then. ‘That was one of the highlights,’ says Sam Quek. ‘I didn’t know Masterchef contestants could do that.’
The full line-up this year is eclectic, to say the least. All branches of the entertainment business are represented – from the music world come rapper Lady Leshurr, The X Factor’s Myles Stephenson and Karen Gibson, the conductor of the Kingdom
Choir. From the acting world are Benidorm’s Crissy Rock, Quadrophenia legend Phil Daniels, Death In Paradise actress Shyko Amos and Felicity Montagu, who is best known as Alan Partridge’s trusty PA Lynn. Former Olympic rower Sir Matthew Pinsent is on board, along with comedian Judi Love, TV presenters Jeff Brazier and Dom Littlewood, TOWIE’S Pete Wicks, broadcaster Riyadh Khalaf, Rupaul’s Drag Race UK’S Baga Chipz and former The Apprentice contestant Thomas Skinner.
One of the most interesting performances comes from travel presenter Amar Latif, the first-ever blind contestant on a British Masterchef. Witnessing Amar chop onions when he can’t see what he’s doing is both terrifying and awe-inspiring. He explains that in the kitchen at home he pays more attention than most to the sound of his food cooking. Some are more familiar faces than others, but none are known for their finesse in the kitchen. So how have our four fared? The one whose competence, or lack of it, is perhaps most surprising is Gethin Jones. This is a man who has seemed unfazed by anything the TV world could throw at him. On Blue Peter he flew with the Red Arrows, completed submarine training with the Royal Navy, braved the Bolivian jungle and survived an alligator attack. He learned to race as a jockey, fight as a Samurai warrior, play the violin at the Proms with the BBC Philharmonic orchestra and even dated (and dumped, more to the point) the nation’s sweetheart Katherine Jenkins. But he admits the challenge of chopping a humble spud on Masterchef reduced him to a gibbering wreck. ‘I was terrified. I was sweating so much I got through a few T-shirts a day during filming. When we had to work in a professional kitchen I was physically shaking. I have no idea why I was so nervous. I wasn’t expecting it. It’s ridiculous, turning into a physical wreck over chopping up a potato!’ Watching Gethin pan fry a cod fillet is TV gold. He seems paralysed, unable to even turn the thing over. Judges John Torode and Gregg Wallace are bewildered. Today he explains that he froze. ‘I don’t know why. I couldn’t turn it over. At home you just do it without thinking and if it falls apart it doesn’t matter. I just kept thinking, “It can’t fall apart here because otherwise it’s game over.”’ We can’t reveal how any of the contestants get on, but to his credit Gethin does redeem himself with a passable shepherd’s pie, although his peas let him down. ‘Gregg said they needed butter in them. Who does that? The thing I found baffling was that I’ve spent my whole life trying to cook healthy things. I’d never add salt and pepper, and certainly not butter. But on Masterchef it’s all, “More butter, more sugar...”’
Like Judy, he went into lockdown alone after filming, and he too has been getting adventurous in the kitchen. He has also, believe it or not, been indulging in some virtual dinner dates with a lady. Alas, the man who consistently tops the Most Eligible Bachelor polls won’t tell us who. ‘All I can say is that yes, we had a virtual date. We cooked the same dish. I sent her the recipe and we made the same thing.’ He’s now a convert to the joys of virtual dinner dates. ‘The best
thing is when the other person goes to eat it, if it’s awful it’s not my fault – it’s hers!’
John Barnes, a former England player, approaches his cooking in bullish fashion. He’s a mountain of a man, and eats appropriately. Aren’t footballers all about nutrition? ‘These days they are, but they weren’t in my day. We just ate what we liked. Burgers, Mcdonald’s, whatever.’ He’s heavy on the meat, and uncompromising with it. He reveals that one of his daughters is a vegetarian. Does he make allowances for that when he’s cooking? ‘No. I just tell her to pick the chicken out.’
The cordon bleu approach, with three sprigs of rosemary on a plate, a sliver of venison and a smear of apricot puree, isn’t for him either. ‘The thing they wanted me to think about was the presentation, but I cook the way I like to eat,’ he says. ‘I wasn’t going to change that for anyone.’
Belonging to the younger generation of sporting royalty, was Olympic hockey star Sam Quek’s food experience heavier on nutrition? ‘Eventually, yes, but not always,’ she says. ‘I remember when I was 15 or 16, my dad would drive me to trials all over the country and all the others would be sitting with their packed lunches of sandwiches
LOCKDOWN ON SET Judy at our photo shoot near her home in Dunblane, Scotland. The other three had their pictures taken in John Barnes’s garden and fruit. I’d send dad to Subway to get me a foot-long meatball marinara, which I’d eat and then train. I don’t know how I did it. If I ate that now I couldn’t jog, never mind run.’
Sam grew up in Birkenhead with her British mother and Singaporean father, who loved to cook. ‘We ate a lot of noodle dishes, steamed fish, dim sum. I love to eat, and I grew up with a love of food – and cooking.’
With so many sporting stars in the line-up this year, it would suggest the competition factor is going to be high. John denies he was remotely competitive during filming, but Sam holds her hands up to it. ‘I can’t lie, I was competitive. Even at home, when I was cooking with my husband in the kitchen, I was competitive. Put me in an environment where there’s a trophy to be won and there are a whole load of competitive juices flowing. A lot of people were saying, “I don’t mind if I go home.” Well, I did mind!’
Let battle commence then. But whoever wins this year, our money is still on Judy Murray to have the first cookery book out. Tin opener optional.