Christopher Biggins is one of eight celebrities competing for the coveted golden frying pan on the latest series of ITV1's Cooking With The Stars 2024 — and the veteran actor and pantomime star knew he was in for a good time when he found out that the professional chef who would be mentoring him on the show was his showbiz pal Rosemary Shrager.
"Rosemary is such a fun woman — we did Tipping Point together and we had such a laugh!" says Christopher. "I love cooking programmes, I've done quite a few of them, and I knew we'd have a good time!"
Christopher made the semi-finals of Celebrity MasterChef back in 2014 — but when he joined What To Watch for a chat about his appearance on Cooking With The Stars, he admitted he was not necessarily expecting such a successful run this time!
Here Christopher reveals more...
Christopher Biggins interview for Cooking With The Stars
Did you come in with some confidence after doing so well on Celebrity MasterChef?
"I did, but I was rather angry about that! On the semi-finals of MasterChef, they asked us to cook something where the person who taught us how to make that recipe meant something to us. My Great Auntie Vi was a terrible snob, but she was a wonderful lady — she taught me how to cook sponge cakes and all sorts of things, and how to lay a table! She was very instrumental in my upbringing, and she taught me how to make a trifle, so for the semi-finals that's what I made — and they didn't make me a winner because they said it was far too easy, which I absolutely disagree with, because it was actually quite complicated! And when we'd finished filming, the crew scoffed it down within seconds..."
How would you rate your skills, going into Cooking With The Stars?
"Well, the awful thing is, as I'm getting older — which of course happens to all of us! — I now rely on my partner Neil, who does all the cooking. I used to love cooking, but I'm getting lazier about it, because it's all the preparation, then it's all the clearing up... Restaurants are a great temptation, but nowadays they're so expensive. You can't afford to go out and pay for a table of eight with great largesse, you now have to go Dutch!"
So were there any skills you were particularly keen to learn?
"Yes, for instance how to make fresh pasta — pasta sauces are very easy, but fresh pasta is quite complicated. Rosemary did teach me a lot, we had a wonderful day at her house in the country when I went and we cooked various things, and that was great fun. Her kitchen is an amazing place, as you can imagine! She's extremely fun, and wonderful to learn from — she took me around her village and showed me off to all the shops there!"
How competitive would you say you were?
"I think there were a lot of people who desperately wanted to win. I won't name names, you'll find out as we go along! But I wasn't one of them, I just wanted to have fun — and have fun I certainly did. Rosemary was extremely competitive, she desperately wanted to win. She's never won before — and I'm not going to tell you what happened this year!"
How did you get on with your fellow contestants?
"Katherine Ryan, the comedian, was absolutely fantastic, I really adored her — in fact I'm doing a season of shows up at the Edinburgh Festival, and she's coming up to do one of them, which is very exciting. Abbey Clancy and I absolutely fell in love, I've never met anyone quite so wonderful as her. Carol Vorderman has been a friend of mine for years and years, so it was a very good atmosphere on set. I love the fact that if you go out early, you don't actually leave the show, you stay there and comment on everybody else. That's much more fun — you're almost like, 'let me lose!', because it's just nice to sit there and watch!"
How did you handle the pressure of the cameras when you were cooking?
"It is quite pressured — I kept getting shouted at by Rosemary to do things, and I kept shouting back, 'I've done it!' We had a great rapport, quite an aggressive rapport together, because I knew what I was doing and she didn't think I was doing it fast enough!"
You do have the option to bang the golden frying pan to get some assistance from your mentor for a short while. Is it difficult to decide whether to use that lifeline or not?
"It is! I think you need it when they say, 'you've got 20 minutes' and you start to panic. If you get to the final, you have to cook a three-course meal in a very short amount of time, and that is absolutely terrifying. I think everybody banged the gong in the final because they wanted to have the extra time to get it all done!"
What was the best thing you learned from doing the show?
"I think the best thing I learned is to keep your sense of humour, because cooking can get very serious. I remember years and years ago, I used to go to an American restaurant in Covent Garden called Joe Allen, and my whole attitude changed because I didn't just go there for the food, I went for the atmosphere. Food brings you all together — you have conversation, you laugh, you cry, extraordinary things happen. That's the wonder of food and eating, and I don't think we should forget that."
Finally, has Cooking With The Stars inspired you to spend more time in the kitchen?
"[laughs] No — Neil is still my top chef!"
The new season of Cooking With The Stars launches on Tuesday, July 30 at 8pm on ITV1 and ITVX
