Because the Guardian’s restaurant critic she has spent an “extreme period of time in posh eating places, consuming fancy, ornate tasting menus”, however Grace Dent’s new problem will see her tasting the delights of minor stars in entrance of rolling cameras as the brand new decide of Superstar MasterChef.
Dent, who additionally hosts the Guardian’s Consolation Consuming podcast, will substitute Gregg Wallace alongside John Torode, the BBC confirmed on Wednesday. Wallace stepped down from the sequence on the finish of November whereas its manufacturing firm, Banijay UK, investigates claims of misconduct, which he denies.
Dent, who has appeared recurrently as a visitor on MasterChef, will decide the twentieth sequence of the present, and stated the step as much as predominant decide was a dream come true.
“I’m so excited that I can’t eat, which is severely detrimental to a restaurant critic. I really feel very fortunate to be stepping in for the subsequent Superstar MasterChef,” she stated. “I can’t wait to fulfill the contemporary movie star faces for 2025.”
Dent, who printed Consolation Consuming: What We Eat When No person’s Wanting final yr after the publication of her memoir, Hungry, in 2020, added that she had been watching the present since she was a lady, sitting on a settee along with her dad. “My complete household watches it. It’s all about uncovering and championing expertise – and to have ended up on this place is greater than a dream to me,” she stated.
The information comes after a tumultuous interval for one of many BBC’s flagship exhibits. The BBC pulled two MasterChef movie star Christmas specials, a Superstar MasterChef Christmas Cook dinner Off and a Strictly Festive Extravaganza from its schedule, however the latest sequence of MasterChef: The Professionals continued to air amid a storm of allegations towards Wallace.
Final week the mannequin and Unfastened Ladies presenter Penny Lancaster, a former contestant on the present, stated she witnessed and was a sufferer of bullying and harassment by Wallace, who has denied claims of misconduct. It got here after the presenter Kirsty Wark, a Superstar MasterChef contestant in 2011, alleged that Wallace advised “sexualised” jokes throughout filming. Legal professionals for the 60-year-old have stated it’s unfaithful that “he engages in behaviour of a sexually harassing nature”.
Wallace was additionally accused of sending inappropriate texts to a younger feminine reporter, whereas a lady stated the presenter had requested a British Signal Language interpreter to signal “huge boobs” and “horny bum” in entrance of a stay viewers on the BBC Good Meals present. Shannon Kyle, the ghostwriter of his 2012 autobiography, claimed he sexually harassed her when she was engaged on the guide. Legal professionals representing Wallace stated: “Our consumer has denied that he has engaged in any such behaviour, and he particularly denies any sexual misconduct with Ms Kyle.”
After revelations that the BBC had acquired a number of complaints about him, Wallace dismissed his accusers as “middle-class ladies of a sure age”. He later apologised, and stated he was not “in head area” when he made the feedback, including: “I’ve been underneath an enormous quantity of stress, quite a lot of emotion, I felt very alone and underneath siege yesterday once I posted it.”
John Torode, who has introduced MasterChef alongside Wallace since 2005, has stated he discovered the allegations of harassment towards his former co-host “really upsetting”. In an announcement launched to mark Dent’s new tenure on Superstar MasterChef, he didn’t point out the furore round Wallace, however stated that the meals critic was “the proper individual to step in alongside me as decide for the forthcoming Superstar MasterChef sequence”.
“I’ve beloved working with Grace on MasterChef through the years. She has been a wonderful visitor, an inspiring critic and in addition set some unbelievable challenges,” he stated. “Experience is what MasterChef is all about, from the contestants to our great manufacturing staff, to us as judges.”
Kalpna Patel-Knight, the BBC’s head of leisure, stated: “Grace isn’t solely an brisk and nicely established member of the MasterChef staff, however can be a world-renowned meals critic, so she will definitely maintain the subsequent batch of celebrities on their toes.”