The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Gold medallist Greg bags another trophy
Olympic athlete wins Celebrity MasterChef thanks to ‘ambitious’ menu
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Greg Rutherford can add a new trophy to his collection of athletics accolades after being crowned the winner of Celebrity MasterChef.
The Olympic gold medallist won the cookery show based on his “ambitious” three-course meal in the finale, having fought off competition from 19 other famous faces during the series.
Rutherford, 32, faced reality TV star Vicky Pattison and retired footballer Neil “Razor” Ruddock in the final.
They each had to draw on everything they had learned across six weeks of gruelling culinary challenges to present a flawless three-course meal to judges John Torode and Gregg Wallace in two hours.
Rutherford’s winning menu was a starter of scotch egg on a rosti nest with mayonnaise and asparagus, and a main course of crusted lamb cutlets with hasselback potatoes, baby carrots, savoy cabbage with a garlic and shallot puree and a mushroom puree.
His dessert was a shortcrust biscuit topped with dark chocolate cremeux, with raspberry jelly and chantilly cream.
Rutherford, who won the gold meal in the long jump at the 2012 London
GREGG WALLACE
Olympics, said Celebrity MasterChef was an “incredible experience”.
“I used everything I learnt as a sportsperson to dedicate my time and energy into creating the best food I possibly could.
“I’m over the moon that John and Gregg appreciated the effort I made and everybody else that tried my food during this process.
“This is a massive achievement and I look forward to using the skills that I’ve learnt during this process in the future.”
Praising Rutherford, Torode said: “I am amazed he had time to produce the food he did! Greg is a deserved winner. He came into this competition knowing food is a fuel and he is walking out in love with food.”
Wallace added: “For crying out loud! I knew Greg would be ambitious today but I didn’t quite know how ambitious.
“He deserves every single shiny millimetre of that trophy because he has put everything into it.”
It marks a TV success for Rutherford, who took part in Strictly Come Dancing in 2016 but failed to make it to the finale.
He said: “Strictly, I knew I was never going to be good at. I had zero dancing background and, like with everything I do, I really tried so hard, and (my dance partner) Natalie Lowe was incredible, she was so patient with me.
“But with the cooking, I enjoyed it so much more just in general, and it meant that I was able to progress more because I had more of a natural gift for cooking than with dancing.”
Rutherford’s other athletics accolades include gold medals at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, the 2014 and 2016 European Athletics Championships and the 2015 World Athletics Championships.
He deserves every single shiny millimetre of that trophy because he has put everything into it.