It has long been soured by scandal, but MasterChef is back with new judges – and they don’t want anyone to have a bad time. Grace Dent and Anna Haugh talk about eating like T rexes and why they don’t think about the show’s past
Grace Dent grew up with MasterChef. She and her dad would watch it together at home in Carlisle. “We used to laugh our heads off at the critics,” she says. “Just utterly ridiculous people, with their overblown egos, thinking their opinions on food matter. Who are these people? And then lo and behold …” She smiles. Dent, who is also the Guardian’s restaurant critic, is the show’s new co-host with the Irish chef Anna Haugh; both have been guest judges across various MasterChef series for several years. Watching the programme as a child did alter the course of Dent’s life. “There was also a little thing in my head, thinking that looks like an amazing job. You get to go to restaurants and talk about it?”
The two hosts knew of each other, says Dent, sitting next to Haugh, “because the restaurant and hospitality world, especially in London, is minuscule”. But in working alongside each other, “our relationship definitely took a much closer turn because we were together,” Haugh steps in, “all the time. Finishing each other’s sentences.” Dent hadn’t reviewed Haugh’s London restaurant Myrtle. “And I wouldn’t review it now. For a start, it would be quite difficult to sneak in. I might arrive in a wig and glasses.” Haugh laughs. “I would love that. If you come, you have to wear a wig and glasses.”
