Unearthed comments reveal critic Grace Dent, who is replacing Gregg Wallace after he stood aside over sexual misconduct allegations, has repeatedly poked fun at the BBC programme
New Celebrity MasterChef host Grace Dent served up a feast of criticism of the show – and made jibes about shamed Gregg Wallace.
The critic, replacing Wallace who stood aside over sexual misconduct allegations, this week called the gig “more than a dream to me”. But we can reveal she has repeatedly panned the BBC programme – with co-host John Torode not spared.
In an apparent reference to bald-headed Wallace, Dent once joked about any pencil skirt-wearing girl succeeding on MasterChef by carrying an expression saying “I like older men with no hair”. And in other comments unearthed by the Mirror, she mocked the show by saying someone could set fire to the restaurant and still reach the celeb version semi-finals “if you’re pretty and made something for Gregg Wallace that involves custard and runny toffee”.
John Torode, Grace Dent and Gregg Wallace (
BBC)
Dent, 51, has dished out scathing attacks on the celeb edition – declaring on another occasion: “We are in the dying days for many of these spin-rinsed TV formats”. And she has also commented that MasterChef has “acid reflux staying power”.
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On Wednesday, Dent was announced as host for the next series of Celebrity MasterChef. She has previously appeared as a guest judge on MasterChef, as well as a contestant on MasterChef: Battle Of The Critics.
In 2011 Dent passed judgment on MasterChef, writing for the Guardian: “For a long while I said any girl could get through round one of MasterChef simply by turning up in a pencil skirt and making a fried Nutella sandwich with condensed milk and an expression that says, ‘I like older men with no hair’.” She did, however, add that her “wholly unfair theory is disproven in episode one”.
In another piece the same year, Dent – who appeared on last year’s I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here – was scathing about the show’s celebrity series, writing: “Celebrity MasterChef has fallen to 2.15pm on weekday BBC1 (with a Friday night half-hour highlights package). Perhaps the BBC sensed that the sight of Tony from Hollyoaks clumsily gutting a sole, splashing guts, brains and skin about, then frying the salvageable detritus was not top-drawer telly.
Dent once mocked the show by saying someone could set fire to the restaurant and still reach the celeb version semi-finals ‘if you’re pretty and made something for Gregg Wallace that involves custard and runny toffee’ (
Image:
BBC)
“I’d as much choose to watch people badly gutting, scaling and debraining animals on TV as I would gleefully jump out of a car on to the hard shoulder. And if it’s not bloody, it’s just bloody awful.”
She added: “We are in the dying days for many of these spin-rinsed TV formats. More worrying for British industry than rising fuel prices or depleted fish stocks is our national shortage of “recognisable people to put on telly who the public give a damn about”.
She went on to pan other shows, before adding: “Back on Celebrity MasterChef, they cut my preview tape in the final frames so I can’t spoil which celeb leaves in week one. But seeing as I still haven’t identified half of them, it’s hard to truly care.”
And in 2012, Dent again laid into the programme, writing for the Independent: “Is it my pained imagination or is Masterchef in some manifestation on British screens almost perpetually? The format has now been so hammered and drained of every surprise and twist that I’ve had happier times recovering from norovirus than sitting through 30 minutes watching former Olympic swimmer Steve Parry explain why he can’t fillet a pollock.
“And do we care if Madge Bishop from Neighbours can make her own pasta? Oh and that bit where they’re all sent to work in a restaurant and it’s jolly scary and the big scary chef man is all gruff with them, but the round ultimately counts for bugger all as it’s never mentioned ever again in any judging capacity (in fact one could set fire to the restaurant and calmly stand outside drinking a can of white cider when the fire engines arrive and still go through to the Celebrity Masterchef semi-finals if you’re pretty and made something for Gregg Wallace that involves custard and runny toffee).”
In 2015, Dent wrote for the same publication: “I have written about MasterChef, due to its acid reflux staying power, more times than almost any other show.” She added: “Perhaps the BBC’s intention when commissioning MasterChef – endlessly, tirelessly, one strand blending into another, no change, no deviation – is to shake off TV critics.
“One day, surely, we’ll have nothing left to say? Perhaps the plan is that in order for British citizens to feel the full value of their licence pennies, every living being should have 15 minutes of fame cooking John Torode pasta (which he pronounces “pusta” and enjoys while wearing cowboy boots)?”
She also said: “The one no one really loves, but hey, it’s here now for another 24 episodes. Ever-shrinking Gregg – all eyes and teeth these days – doing a good line in ‘I’m still excited about this format.’ I don’t think he is. I think his agent is. There are no more words to say about chicken rolled in parma ham. If a turbot is pan-fried in butter and John Torode doesn’t taste it, does it still exist?”
A representative of Dent was contacted for comment.
The BBC and MasterChef’s production firm Banijay UK declined to comment.
Wallace’s lawyers have said it is false he engages in behaviour of a sexually harassing nature.
