When both Gregg Wallace and John Torode were fired from MasterChef following a seven-month investigation into the former’s behaviour, finding their replacements was always going to be a tall order for the BBC show. But the cooking competition’s return last night proved that it doesn’t need bawdy kitchen banter to survive – with new presenters Grace Dent and Anna Haugh bringing their own bold flavour to the format.
For almost 20 years, Wallace and Torode appeared to be the unstoppable force at the face of MasterChef, bringing a balance of sharp culinary critique and tongue-in-cheek innuendo. But Wallace’s on-screen comments – for example, saying he wanted to “take my shirt off and dive in” to a female contestant’s dessert – stopped being so funny when an investigation upheld 45 out of 83 allegations of misconduct against him last year. Torode’s exit followed shortly afterwards, with the report finding that he used an “extremely offensive racist term” – an allegation he denies.
