Celebrity Masterchef
Judy Murray tells TV Times how a milestone birthday inspired her to enter TV’S scariest kitchené
I can’t wait to see if tennis coach Judy Murray will serve up some culinary aces in the kitchen. In our interview, Judy explains why her sons were less than impressed about her taking part!
Judy Murray admits she’s ‘not terribly adventurous’ when it comes to cooking. But the tennis coach and mother of Wimbledon winners Andy and Jamie was still more than game to take part in this year’s Celebrity Masterchef
– not least because it was an opportunity to catch up with judge Gregg Wallace, her fellow Strictly Come Dancing 2014 competitor.
Judy’s taking part in the fourth and final heat of the BBC1 contest this week, alongside Olympicwinning rower Sir Matthew Pinsent, Benidorm actor Crissy Rock, TOWIE’S Pete Wicks and Youtube star Riyadh Khalaf.
Here, in an exclusive interview, Judy, 60, tells TV Times why the time was right for her to walk into the infamous kitchen…
Why did you decide to do Celebrity Masterchef this year? It’s quite interesting – the opportunity to do it came quite soon after my 60th birthday [last September]. Having hit 60, I had made a wish list of some things I wanted to do, and one of them was to learn to cook properly – and I thought, ‘It’s a sign!’ And I do enjoy watching it when I get the chance. Over the past few years, I’ve had opportunities to do various TV shows, and I really only do them if I think they are going to be fun or interesting – and Gregg Wallace did Strictly with me way back, so I thought, ‘Well, it’s a chance to see Gregg again!’
You don’t do things by halves, do you? You decide to learn to cook, and you do it on TV in front of millions of viewers! [Laughs] I know! I mean, who does that?! But for most of my adult life I’ve just always been far too busy to want to spend any time in the kitchen learning to cook properly. The time it takes to research the recipes, buy the stuff, prepare it, cook it, clean it up… When you’ve got young kids, it’s more the function of, ‘I just need to get everybody fed.’ Then, for most of my coaching life, and certainly when the boys’ careers took off, you’re travelling all the time and living out of a suitcase in hotels and eating out.
At the start of the competition, did you have any confidence in your abilities?
No, not at all! I’ve never been hugely into cooking – the things that I would make on a regular basis would be very simple things like mince and potatoes, spaghetti bolognese, roast chicken with potatoes and vegetables, apple crumble…
If I was making something from scratch, it would always be simple and not terribly adventurous. That’s not to say that I don’t enjoy adventurous food – I do when somebody else cooks it and puts it on the plate for me.
How did it feel walking into the Masterchef kitchen for the first time? It was quite similar to walking into Elstree Studios [where Strictly is filmed] for the first time. It’s like, ‘Wow, this is what I see on my TV, and I’m actually going to have to do it now!’
It’s quite daunting when you stand behind your kitchen workstation and you realise, ‘This is not my cooker, these are not my utensils and these scales are electronic, and I don’t do electronic scales!’ You start to panic because you don’t know what you’re going to be asked to cook, and you’ve got cameras all around you, plus Gregg and John [Torode] asking you questions. It was more stressful than I thought would be!
How hard is it to cook while John and Gregg are talking to you?
I remember when they came to talk to me, I was chopping an apple and my hands were shaking! I thought, ‘I could chop my finger off here and this could be an absolute disaster.’ I think what I’ve realised is that whenever I’m doing these kind of shows where you are being judged doing something that is not your thing, my ability to perform under pressure is terrible. I have spent most of my adult life in and around the top end of the tennis circuit where I’m coaching people to perform under pressure, and I couldn’t follow my own advice!
Did your sons Andy and Jamie offer you much support when you told them you were doing this? No, they’re always very rude about my cooking exploits! I think it is because my mum was such a good cook and a good baker, but she
MY SONS ARE ALWAYS VERY RUDE ABOUT MY COOKING!
loved doing it and she comes from an era where she never worked, so she perfected so many wonderful things over the years. It’s just never been my thing, so their expectations of me doing anything in Celebrity Masterchef were absolutely zero.
Have they been impressed by what they’ve seen since? Well, I think so – I have been sending them pictures of some of the things I’ve been making during lockdown, so I’ll have to test them out on them as and when I’m allowed to!
How have you been finding lockdown generally?
I spend most of my life working or travelling overseas, so my work has been completely shut down at the moment and I’ve been grounded, which has been great. It’s given me a chance to go out on my bike and explore the countryside where I live, which I would never have had the time to do before. I have got a new exercise routine, and I’ve gone gluten-free and dairy-free. I learnt how to be an instructor for kids’ yoga – not that I necessarily want to do that, but I work a lot with kids, so I’m always interested in what other sports or activities are doing to engage children. For me, it’s a taste of what retirement could look like, and I have actually been surprised by how much I’ve enjoyed it!
John Torode and Gregg Wallace don’t always get credit for their bravery, but when former Benidorm star Crissy Rock identifies herself as ‘a woman who put a jelly in the oven’, suddenly you realise the dangers these two face… Joining Crissy in this week’s final heat are Youtube star Riyadh Khalaf, TOWIE’S Pete Wicks,
Olympic rower Sir Matthew Pinsent and tennis coach Judy Murray. The food on offer in the first round includes a ‘sweet mess’, before the five take on slightly more taxing dishes at top London eateries Sam’s Riverside and Scully St James’s. Continues tomorrow and Friday. ★★★★ SP
See Judy Murray interview, page 12