BBC MasterChef winner breaks silence on John Torodes | UK News

MasterChef returned this week with the launch of the new collection with sacked presenters Gregg Wallace and John Torode fronting the programme. The BBC determined to still show this 12 months’s newbie collection, saying it was “the right thing to do” for the cooks who took half. Thomasina Miers, who received the 2005 reboot of the BBC show, has opened up about the previous host in a candid new interview.Torode, 60, was sacked from the show last month, which he co-presented with Wallace, 60, for 20 years. His dismissal comes after a review into Wallace’s conduct. An unbiased investigation, performed by the legal professionals Lewis Silkin, upheld 45 allegations against Wallace – who was also axed by the BBC – of inappropriate behaviour. The upheld criticism against Torode associated to a severely offensive racist time period allegedly used on the set of MasterChef in 2018. The presenter said he had “no recollection” of it and that any racist language is “wholly unacceptable”.

Ms Miers, who took half in the show as an newbie chef, has since gone on to turn out to be a author, restaurateur and TV presenter. Speaking about the latest scandal, she admittedly feels “awful” for Torode. There had been 9 complaints lodged against him in whole, but only the use of a racial slur was upheld against him.

Speaking to the podcast Spooning with Mark Wogan, the previous MasterChef winner addressed Torode’s true colors.

Ms Miers said: “John was incredibly nurturing and supportive. The idea of John being racist frankly is so ludicrous.”

She went on: “I felt awful for John. I mean, and also the elegance of his response to it, how he conducted himself, I think, ‘Yeah.’

“I was kind of gobsmacked by [the allegations against] John, who was so caring and intent on the people under his watch, under his care. I think he felt that – that they were under his care.

“He could see that people were giving up time and energy, not paying the rent, to do the show… He really, really watched out for us.”

The BBC had confronted calls not to show the new collection but announced last month after “careful consideration” the show would go forward.

Ms Miers said she did not perceive why they would not show the new collection.

She commented: “I just don’t get the purpose. I don’t understand the mentality that you can hurt a viewer.. You know, I think we are adults in this world.”

“Either don’t watch the show if you don’t want to see them, or realise that the show isn’t really about them, it’s about the people who are contesting,” she added.

Addressing the allegations against Wallace, she said: “Gregg was full of smutty jokes… I definitely wasn’t his type.”

Miers secured victory in the first collection of the revamped MasterChef 20 years in the past, subsequently establishing the Mexican road food chain Wahaca, which now operates 14 places throughout the UK.

The broadcaster confirmed neither presenter will return to future collection.