Giorgio Locatelli has been announced as the new judge on Celebrity MasterChef, stepping in after John Torode was sacked by the last year. He will appear alongside Grace Dent on the next UK celebrity series, which has already been filmed.
Locatelli called the role “a real honour” and said he could not wait for viewers to see what the celebrity contestants would bring to the kitchen, adding that the show would really put their culinary skills to the test. Dent said she was a “long-time admirer” of his work and welcomed him as “a fabulous addition to our UK Celebrity MasterChef team.”
The change gives the next series a new judging line-up before it reaches screens, even though the contestants themselves have not yet been revealed. Locatelli is already familiar with televised cooking competitions, appearing on the Italian version of the amateur cooking show, and he has spent years in professional kitchens after early work at the Savoy and later restaurant launches including Olivo, Zafferano, Locanda Locatelli and Locatelli at the National Gallery.
He also made clear how he approached the job once filming was under way. Speaking on the Table Manners podcast, Locatelli said he was “strict about cleanliness and organisation” and described himself as “a bad cop,” saying those were skills he taught slowly. He added that people working in entertainment often found it hard to cook to time, while sportspeople “always hit the time.”
Torode’s exit followed an independent report by law firm Lewis Silkin, which upheld an allegation that he used “an extremely offensive racist term.” He said he had “no recollection” of it. His departure came after Gregg Wallace was sacked when 45 allegations of misconduct against him were upheld, and Wallace had been replaced by Dent on the last series of Celebrity MasterChef. The next series now carries a different face at the judges’ table, but the one thing still missing is the cast that Locatelli will be testing.
