Why we won’t BATTER THE CHEFS
The judges on MasterChef: The Professionals, TV’s toughest cookery show, insist they won’t boil over
MasterChef judge Gregg Wallace famously once described himself as ‘a fat, bald bloke who likes a pudding’. Today he says he’s now just ‘a bald bloke who likes half a pudding’. At the age of 58, he has the daily discipline of an athlete, weighing in at 12st, but five years ago he was 16.5st and lived on beer, takeaways and the rich nibbles on offer during MasterChef and its various offshoots.
‘I used to have a fry-up in the morning, followed by loads of MasterChef tastings, the pub, and then a restaurant,’ says Gregg. ‘I didn’t like the size I was. I didn’t like what I was seeing on television, but I honestly didn’t know how to change it. I was scared of change and I thought I deserved all the things that were making me bigger and more unwell. I thought life would be dull without them, but I was wrong. I’ve learnt that there’s a whole world of wonderful food that’s healthy, and that being slim and fit is not a struggle.’
To achieve this, he follows a strict regime. ‘My life, hour by hour, is managed. I go to bed at 8pm and get up at 4.30am. I want to put in an hour’s exercise every day, 30 minutes of reading, a 30minute walk and time with my wife and family. Every meal is scheduled, and I only drink twice a week. I realised I was happier once I started doing that. I like schedules and I hate chaos.’
Fortunately this month’s new series of MasterChef: The Professionals is within his schedule. Along with a new judge, acclaimed Irish chef and restaurateur Anna Haugh, and Michelin-starred regular Marcus Wareing, he’ll be casting his eye and his tastebuds over 32 cooks as they battle to become the 2022 champion. He’ll also have a ringside seat for the challenges, such as the nerve-racking Skills Test set by Anna and Marcus.
In the first heat, we’ll see the judges show them how to create oysters smoked and poached in a beurre blanc, and a summer fruit tart with jam, crème pâtissière and Italian meringue, before they task the contestants with producing their own take on the dishes. ‘On professional MasterChef you’re seeing a window into the soul of the obsessed as they strive for creative perfection,’ says Gregg. ‘On this show you see chefs squeezing every ounce of flavour out of every ingredient. That doesn’t happen anywhere else.’
The show runs for six gruelling weeks as the chefs first compete in heats with the aim of making it to that week’s quarter-final. Three contestants will make it to the final, where they’ll have one last opportunity to produce the best three-course menu of their lives for the judges.
Naturally there’s huge potential for stress and emotions to boil over, and as someone who’s experienced his fair share of kitchen tension, Marcus knows how to be critical yet sensitive to the competing chefs. ‘It’s a very emotional show,’ he says. ‘As an experienced judge and chef you learn to take into consideration people’s emotions. If you destroy people’s feelings or thought processes, they’ll never be able to achieve great food.’
Marcus, 52, trained under Gordon Ramsay and has admitted ‘he put me through mental torture’. They later famously fell out and although Marcus won’t be drawn on whether they’re friends today, he says, ‘Gordon gave me the best training ever. When I came to the industry, I wanted to work with brilliant chefs, so I knew I’d be shouted at. But I was in a training camp, and I knew it was my mistakes that were creating those raised voices.’
Anna, 41, who’s taken over Monica Galetti’s role and is chef patron of Myrtle Restaurant in Chelsea as well as Anna Haugh at Conrad Dublin, is thrilled to have the chance to inspire fresh talent, and agrees with Marcus that they must tread carefully with their criticism. ‘This industry is built on honesty,’ she says. ‘If you can say something constructive, that’s how a chef grows.’
Tallaght-born Anna received huge praise for speaking about the taboo topic of bullying in the kitchen a few years ago. ‘I was very nervous when I did that as I thought there might have been a negative backlash because it was at a time when we didn’t really talk about mental health and our responsibility as leaders. But the positive reaction is something I’ve carried through now in that I watch how all of my staff behave.’
Marcus adds, ‘You see this emotion come through and be transferred onto the plate. When you’re tasting the chefs’ food and they’re hanging on your every word, it’s an incredibly emotional moment.’
■ MasterChef: The Professionals starts Wednesday at 9pm on BBC1.