{"id":56687,"date":"2025-09-11T06:10:16","date_gmt":"2025-09-11T06:10:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/56687\/"},"modified":"2025-09-11T06:10:16","modified_gmt":"2025-09-11T06:10:16","slug":"irish-chef-anna-haugh-part-of-new-bbc-masterchef-presenting-team-after-sacking-of-gregg-wallace-and-john-torode-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/56687\/","title":{"rendered":"Irish chef Anna Haugh part of new BBC MasterChef presenting team after sacking of Gregg Wallace and John Torode \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The BBC<\/a> has announced Irish chef Anna Haugh<\/a> will be part of an all-female presenting team to host MasterChef after the previous judges, Gregg Wallace<\/a> and John Torode<\/a>, were sacked. <\/p>\n

Grace Dent, the Guardian\u2019s restaurant critic, will host the show alongside Haugh, who has already become a regular on the BBC\u2019s cooking programmes. Both have previous experience as guest judges on the show.<\/p>\n

Originally from Tallaght, Co Dublin<\/a>, Haugh trained as a chef at Technological University Dublin\u2019s culinary arts school before going on to work with the likes of Philip Howard, Shane Osborne and Gordon Ramsay<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Haugh has been cooking professionally for almost 20 years, having spent more than a decade in London. She owns Myrtle Restaurant in Chelsea, London, and the nearby Wee Sister Wine Bar.<\/p>\n

The BBC has confirmed that Haugh already stood in for Wallace<\/a> in the final episodes of the current amateur edition of MasterChef, which was filmed at the end of last year. It was only at that point that Wallace stepped back from the programme, when a series of allegations were made about his behaviour.<\/p>\n

The BBC has already announced that the TV host and chef Matt Tebbutt will replace Wallace as a judge on the next series of MasterChef: The Professionals.<\/p>\n

Dent, who has been a regular guest critic on MasterChef for more than a decade, said: \u201cI\u2019m over the moon to be coming back to the MasterChef kitchen and unearthing what culinary skills people have been cooking up behind closed doors.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a joy to be working with Anna, who brings all her incredible experience to the table. I am in for such a treat with this series, I can\u2019t wait to get started.\u201d<\/p>\n

Haugh said she had admired Dent\u2019s \u201cwriting and wit\u201d for years.<\/p>\n

\u201cMasterChef has long inspired and resonated with cooks in home kitchens and of course in my industry,\u201d she said. \u201cI can\u2019t wait to get into the studio for what will be a great competition.\u201d <\/p>\n

[\u00a0MasterChef 2025 review: The cursed 21st season has made it to air with all hint of flavour removedOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

It comes after Wallace was dropped<\/a> after an independent report substantiated 45 allegations made against him, including claims of inappropriate sexual language and one incident of unwelcome physical contact. He has apologised \u201cfor any distress caused\u201d but said the report cleared him of \u201cthe most serious and sensational accusations\u201d.<\/p>\n

Torode was also dropped as a presenter<\/a> after being the subject of a substantiated complaint over the use of racist language.<\/p>\n

A BBC spokesperson said in July: \u201cJohn Torode denies the allegation. He has stated he has no recollection of the alleged incident and does not believe that it happened. He also says that any racial language is wholly unacceptable in any environment.<\/p>\n

Dent and Haugh\u2019s arrival will mark a new beginning for the series, which will be filmed in new Birmingham studios.<\/p>\n

The MasterChef executive editor, David Ambler, said: \u201cBoth are enormously respected in the hospitality industry and we can\u2019t wait for them to uncover some more great cooking talent \u2013 from home kitchens across the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

The BBC chose to air the latest amateur edition of the show despite Wallace and Torode featuring heavily, stating that the decision was taken in consultation with contestants and because of the hard work carried out by the amateur chefs.<\/p>\n

However, the Guardian revealed over the summer that a contestant from the latest series of MasterChef had been edited out of the programme. Sarah Shafi said she had told its producers she did not want the show to be broadcast after the allegations made against Wallace and Torode.<\/p>\n

Shafi said it would send the wrong message about the treatment of women and the lack of challenge to powerful men behaving inappropriately. It later emerged a second contestant had been edited out. \u2013 Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The BBC has announced Irish chef Anna Haugh will be part of an all-female presenting team to host…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":56688,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[18,117,19,17,41015],"class_list":{"0":"post-56687","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-eire","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-masterchef"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56687"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56687\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}