Entertainment
Celebrity MasterChef: Repair Shop’s Will exits after falling fowl of judges with undercooked poultry
Will ruffled feathers with his raw poultry (Picture: BBC/Shine TV)
Celebrity MasterChef’s third group of famous faces weathered the heat in the kitchen on Monday night – often on a wing and a prayer – until The Repair Shop’s Will Kirk’s second undercooked bird saw him eliminated.
Reality TV royalty Katie Price, actor and presenter Joe Swash, Homes Under the Hammer’s Dion Dublin and former Coronation Street actress Melissa Johns joined Will in front of judges John Torode and Gregg Wallace.
The nervous field of celebrities all expressed anticipation over the challenges that lay ahead at the top of the show, as Joe set the bar low with his claims that he was able to ‘keep people alive with my food’, but that it was ‘nothing to write home about’.
Will, however, was looking forward to the chance to get stuck in with cooking some meat for once as his partner is vegan and he tended to ‘eat meat in my car secretly’.
During the first Under the Cloche challenge, his mystery ingredient was chickpeas, something he was familiar with, having made a lot of hummus at home, but excitement got the better of him as he decided to introduce chicken, butternut squash and other vegetables, drizzled with oil, which John dismissed as ‘a tray bake affair’.
‘Will, where do you want your MasterChef trophy sent?’, joked Gregg, sarcastically.
Gregg had many opportunities to wince on Monday (Picture: BBC)
He also kept checking on his chicken in the oven, which ultimately meant it ‘didn’t stand a chance’ at cooking through properly, according to John.
The street food challenge then saw the contestants tasked with recreating Jamaican Escovitch fish and festival dumplings.
A tricky ask of all the celebrities, there was limited success with the dumplings, with Katie refusing to serve hers at all (although her fish was perfectly cooked) and the rest of the dumplings overcooked or undercooked.
At this stage, Dion was all of us with his celebration of small victories.
‘Event though I haven’t got it exactly spot on, I’m getting food out there within the allotted amount of time, so that’s an achievement for me,’ he reasoned.
Dion was ready to recognise success, however small (Picture: BBC)
Will, however, tasted a bit of success, with his dumplings pronounced ‘not bad’ by John and his fish ‘cooked really well’, and Gregg later praised him as having had ‘a competition of two halves’.
‘I’m absolutely buzzing – I almost cried,’ the visibly relieved furniture restorer confessed.
It was not to last though, as the final stage of the first heat saw the celebrities produce the dish they would serve for a dinner party.
Will plumped for duck, which Gregg reminded him was a favourite of both his and John’s – ‘no pressure’.
Will was disappointed to go home first (Picture: BBC)
Again, he fell fowl with his duck pronounced ‘raw’ despite his accompanying jus and sweet potatoes being tasty.
‘You and poultry, Will!’, John exclaimed.
Or, as a competitive Joe rather uncharitably put it: ‘Will dug us all out a hole!’
As the announcement was made, Will admitted he was ‘really gutted’ to be the first sent home.
More: Celebrity MasterChef
‘But when I think about it,’ he continued, ‘That is the second time I’ve under cooked meat and no-one wants undercooked meat.’
Unfortunately yes Will, that is 100% accurate.
Celebrity MasterChef continues on Tuesday at 9pm on BBC One.
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