MASTERCHEF: THE PROFESSIONALS (BBC2)

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Now that Bake Off’s over, ever-reliable Masterchef is back to give us our foodie fix.

Reliable because we know exactly what we’re going to get.

Some cracking chefs whose skill astounds and whose dishes have us salivating and wondering what we can raid from the fridge.

Others whose restaurant we note, just to make sure we never darken its doors.

“I’m a bit worried about the skills test,” admitted one early victim, er, contestant.

So he should have been after serving up a squid dish that was so raw the poor critter could still have been in the sea.

Still, even that was an improvement on the next contestant who delivered a squid so awful that two of the judges refused to even eat it.

It was branded a disaster and, while she bravely vowed to be back, she was soon in tears outside of the kitchen – but handily still in front of the cameras.

“Masterchef is brutal,” she’d said before starting. She wasn’t wrong.

And that’s the fascination. We want to see who can truly stand the heat in telly’s toughest kitchen.