Entertainment
Celebrity MasterChef: Rita Simons eliminated after ‘slice of rice’ fiasco
Rita was knocked out after one too many slip ups (Picture: BBC)
Tonight’s episode of Celebrity MasterChef, in which John Torode donned his whites for the first time this series, ultimately saw EastEnders star Rita Simons sent home second, after a few too many issues with her dishes.
Or as Gregg Wallace put it to her after her final dish: ‘You know you’re in trouble if someone offers you a slice of rice.’
Tonight, the celebs were battling it out for a place in the Quarter Finals, and the fist challenge facing contestants Rita, comedian Su Pollard, Blue’s Duncan James and Bez from Happy Mondays was to identify four cheeses.
After mixed success, each was tasked with individually tackling the classic Italian spaghetti carbonara dish in just 15 minutes – and lying in wait to trip all of them up was the rogue ingredient of cream.
Only Bez knew to avoid the dairy and make his ‘sauce’ from egg yolks, but all made a decent stab of it – including rolling out the fresh pasta, even if, as Rita claimed, ‘you need a PhD for this’ when it came to operating the pasta machine.
Or as Duncan would put it, when being under the beady eyes of Gregg and John Torode: ‘You feel very exposed, with your trousers down and they’re looking at everything.’ Well quite.
Duncan in tears of joy or sorrow – he wasn’t sure (Picture: BBC)
Rita contemplates the competition (Picture: BBC)
The second challenge introduced them to guest restaurateur and chef Nisha Katona, founder of Indian chain Mowgli, and had the four tackling different dishes.
Again, it was mixed success for Rita and the ‘hard’ cauliflower she produced for her vegetable thali while juggling an array of veggies and spices.
In the final task of the night, the celebrities went all out with an array of experimental dishes, from Duncan’s poached pineapples with a hint of soy and miso to Bez’s South American seafood inspired dish with pan-fried lettuce.
It was Su that soared through in this challenge with her Indian spiced rice pudding and poached pears, which Gregg labelled ‘absolutely yummy’, but Rita stumbled.
Rita’s infamous ‘slice of rice’ (Picture: BBC)
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Despite praise for her jerk chicken, and as she prayed to ‘hold my nerve – for once’, Gregg and John were let down by her ‘afterthought’ of a sauce and the previously mentioned ‘mass’ of rice.
Subsequently, the actress was eliminated second in the competition, and labelled herself ‘gutted’ but ‘okay’ as she’d met ‘amazing people and had an amazing experience.
Celebrity MasterChef continues on Friday at 9pm on BBC One.
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