MASTERCHEF stars John Torode and Gregg Wallace were less than impressed last night – saying they were served three dishes that weren’t cooked properly.
The judges, who took forward to tucking into perfectly-made meals on the show, instead grumbled about hard rice and bad pastry.
The picky pair were careful to talk up the plus-points of each dish but didn’t exatly hold back on the drawbacks.
John explained: “We’ve got three cooks who’ve got things on their plates that aren’t cooked properly.
“Lisa’s decided in this round not to do so many processes but deliver big bold flavour and we got that.
“Harissa round a piece of lamb – that was good, but the pearl barley was hard.”
More on MasterChef
Gregg added: “Hayley’s dish tasted great. Beautiful lemon curd, a cardamom biscuit crumb. Her pastry wasn’t right.”
John said: “Rachel made for us a cauliflower and paneer curry that was very, very sweet.”
But Gregg then added: “The rice wasn’t cooked properly. It had hard bits in it still.”
However, if there was one chef they did like it was Pookie – who was so delighted at getting through to the next round that she started sobbing.
The emotion seemed to be catching, with host Gregg, 57, seen taking off his glasses and wiping tears from his eyes.
He said: “Oh stop it. For crying out loud. You’ve got me going.”
Masterchef fans started the series unsure about the new-look show after it tore up its longstanding format.
Gregg and John explained that there would now be an ‘audition’ round – with the pair no longer marching about shouting while the contestants cook.
Instead, dishes are presented to them in a new Tasting Room, as happens in the Aussie version of the show.
And in another twist, Gordon Ramsay is going to be brought in to tutor the finalists this year.
However, not everyone was impressed, with one viewer tweeting: “Why f**k with a format that works?”
