Giorgio Locatelli has been announced as the new judge on Celebrity MasterChef, after John Torode was sacked by the BBC last year.
Locatelli, a chef and restauranteur who currently appears on the Italian version of the amateur cooking show, will be seen alongside Grace Dent on the next UK celebrity series, which has already been filmed.
Locatelli said joining the show was “a real honour”, adding: “I can’t wait for you to see what our celebrity contestants bring to the kitchen, as we are really putting their culinary skills to the test in this series.”
Dent said she was a “long-time admirer” of Locatelli’s work and described him as a “fabulous addition to our UK Celebrity MasterChef team”.
“I also love an opportunity to serve up a heavy dose of glamour in the MasterChef kitchen, and I have a feeling Giorgio is going to give me a real run for my money,” she joked.
Locatelli joins the show after Torode was sacked following an allegation of using a racist term, which he said he had “no recollection” of.
A ‘bad cop’ judge
Reflecting on filming the series, Locatelli told the Table Manners podcast: “I think I was a bad cop. I’m strict. Strict about cleanliness and organisation. Those little skills that you teach them slowly.”
The contestants on the new series have not yet been revealed, but Locatelli said one star in particular stood out to him with the quality of some of their dishes.
He told the podcast’s presenters Jessie and Lennie Ware: “There was somebody who really surprised me a few times in the positive. It was good fun to do, it was really good fun to be with them.
“The people who worked in entertainment found it so difficult to cook to the time,” he reflected. “The sportspeople always hit the time. Their life is run by time, while the other people are all about creativity.”
The spin-off series sees a number of celebrities face cooking challenges, with judges overseeing their culinary skills until one star makes it to the end to claim the Celebrity MasterChef trophy.
Locatelli is a Michelin-star chef who worked at the Savoy early in his career, before going on to launch restaurants including Olivo, Zafferano, Locanda Locatelli and Locatelli at the National Gallery.
John Torode appeared on MasterChef for two decades
Torode was sacked from the BBC following an allegation of using “an extremely offensive racist term”, which was upheld as part of an independent report by law firm Lewis Silkin.
His exit followed that of co-presenter Gregg Wallace, who was sacked after 45 allegations of misconduct against him were upheld.
At the time, Wallace said he was “deeply sorry for any distress” he caused, and that he “never set out to harm or humiliate”.
Wallace was replaced by Dent, who appeared with Torode on the last series of Celebrity MasterChef.
Torode said: “I repeat that I have no recollection of what I’m accused of. The enquiry could not even state the date or year of when I am meant to have said something wrong.”
The presenter was replaced on the main amateur series of MasterChef by Anna Haugh.
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