{"id":629526,"date":"2026-09-19T11:48:16","date_gmt":"2026-09-19T11:48:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/629526\/"},"modified":"2026-09-19T11:48:16","modified_gmt":"2026-09-19T11:48:16","slug":"torode-says-masterchef-dismissal-left-him-devastated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/629526\/","title":{"rendered":"Torode says MasterChef dismissal left him ‘devastated’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former MasterChef host John Torode has said the BBC’s decision to sack him from the show left him “devastated”.<\/p>\n

The 61-year-old Melbourne-born chef hosted the popular series for 20 years alongside Gregg Wallace.<\/p>\n

Torode was sacked from the cooking competition show last year after an allegation that he used “highly offensive racist language” was upheld in a review looking into Wallace, who was also fired due to alleged misconduct.<\/p>\n

In an interview with The Telegraph, Torode said he received the news via a call from his agent while he was on holiday.<\/p>\n

“It was a shock,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"Lisa
\nLisa Faulkner and John Torode<\/p>\n

“The shutters closed around me and I was devastated, absolutely, completely devastated.<\/p>\n

“I put my heart and soul into that thing. I really worked very, very hard.”<\/p>\n

Torode described the BBC as “a machine [that] spat me out”, adding that in his entire time with the broadcaster “nobody ever knocked on my door and said, ‘You can\u2019t do this,\u2019 or \u2018This is a problem.\u2019 Never, ever, ever, ever, ever”.<\/p>\n

He also ruled out taking any potential legal action over his dismissal.<\/p>\n

“To get embroiled in further conflict would only do damage,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It was a situation that was so shocking, so out of the blue, that there was nothing to be done to make a change in any way and to heal was going to take time.”<\/p>\n

Following his exit from the series, Torode established a YouTube channel – John and Lisa\u2019s Kitchen and Home – which he runs with his wife, EastEnders and Holby City actress Lisa Faulkner.<\/p>\n

In July, Faulkner revealed she had to have surgery because she was diagnosed with the early stages of breast cancer.<\/p>\n

Source: Press Association<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former MasterChef host John Torode has said the BBC’s decision to sack him from the show left him…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":629527,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[93,61,60,282],"class_list":["post-629526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=629526"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629526\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/629527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=629526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=629526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=629526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}