MasterChef Festive Extravaganza: Champion of Champions review – John Torode leaves the kitchen at last

Thomas Frake, Chariya Khattiyot, Brin Pirathapan and Natalie Coleman in MasterChef Festive Extravaganza: Champion of Champions.
Photograph: Patch Dolan/BBC/Shine TV

So. Farewell then, John Torode. You were the co-presenter of MasterChef and Celebrity MasterChef. Until you weren’t. But first, and finally, there is this: the second of two festive specials in which we watch the Australian peering at potatoes while pretending we don’t know the BBC chose not to renew his contract in July after an allegation against him using “an extremely offensive racist term” was upheld. (Torode denies the allegations and claims to have “no recollection” of the incident).

So, let’s scurry past the indignities (the two unaired Christmas specials from 2024; the summer of “MASTERCHEF CHAOS” headlines; the aired-but-with-two-contestants-edited-out-at-their-request series of MasterChef; Gregg Wallace) and remember him this way: staring blankly in linen as a panicking former credit controller from Hackney drops half a lobster on the studio floor.