Masterchef’s Gregg and John reveal how contestants broke down in tears after major change to show

MASTERCHEF’S Gregg Wallace and John Torode have revealed how contestants broke down in tears after a major change to the show.

The new series of the BBC cooking show begins on Monday, and once again sees John and Gregg tasting the dishes of a whole new bunch of amateur chefs.

There have been a number of changes this series, mainly due to social distancing requirements as the show was filmed last last year.

After so many months at home being able to practice for the competition more than past contestants would have been able to, it was an overwhelming experience for some of the chefs to finally have their food tasted by John and Gregg.

Speaking about a female contestant who became quite emotional after the pair tasted her food, Gregg told The Celeb Report’s TV Mag: “If they had, as John and I suspected, put more practice time in, then of course, they’ve invested more in it than they would have done normally.

“And of course, the stakes are higher, because it means more to them. And it did seem emotionally charged as well.

“Or perhaps it was that, for many of us, this is the first time we’ve seen anybody else other than our relations for the last three months.”

John added: “The other thing is, you know, let’s remember that somebody like her has only ever cooked for her own family.

“She came on the first time and you know, were they tears of joy? Or were they tears of frustration? What were they?

“And I think more than anything I think they were they were tears of joy. We liked her food, let’s be fair about it. She is a generous cook, simple as that.

“The food that she cooks is, you know, it’s not what everybody would be used to eating. And it was really very, very good.”

This series also includes a new challenge based around favourite ingredients, and John said: “I think that what it does is it just shows that there are probably so many ingredients out there that we would five or 10 years ago not even considered to be an ingredient. That’s what I like about it.

“And that actually if people don’t know how to use this ingredient, or they’ve seen it, but they’ve been a bit frightened of it, the great thing about MasterChef is you’re going to see how it probably should be used.”

Masterchef begins on Monday March 1 at 9pm on BBC One. TV Mag is available in The Celeb Report every Saturday.