Restaurant keeper critic; Grace DentIt has been announced that he will judge the next series of Celebrity MasterChef alongside John Torode.
Dent will judge the upcoming 20th series at the showafter the news last month Gregg Wallace He would step down from the role amid an external review into allegations of misconduct.
Author and podcaster Dent has been regularly as a guest on MasterChef, and last year was a contestant on MasterChef: Battle Of The Critics.
She said: “I watched MasterChef when I was a little girl sitting with my dad on the couch. My whole family keeps it. It’s all about discovering the talent and the winner – and I ended up in this place, it’s more of a dream for me.
“I’m so upset that I can’t eat because the restaurant is seriously damaged. I feel very lucky to be in the near future Celebrity MasterChef.
“I can’t wait to meet the new celebrity faces for 2015.”
Torode, who has presented MasterChef since 2005, said: “I have loved working on MasterChef over the years. He was an excellent host, an inspiring critic, and some incredible challenges.
“Expertise is what MagisterChef is all about, from the contestants to our amazing production team, to us as judges.
“Love of food, love of MasterChef, and undoubted expertise, makes Grace the perfect person to be a judge on the next Celebrity MasterChef series.”
Last year, Dentus was part of the lineup for ITV’s I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! but they left the show early for medical reasons. She writes a restaurant review column for The Guardian and hosts the celebrity food podcast Comfort Eating.
Her book Comfort Eating: What We Eat With Nobody’s Face was published last year, with her memoir, Hungry, published in 2020.
Kalpna Patel-Knight, head of entertainment at the BBC, said: “Grace Dent is the perfect choice to enter the next series of Celebrity MasterChef.
“Thanks to not only being an energetic and determined member of the MasterChef team, but also a world-renowned food critic, he will certainly keep the next crowd on his toes.”
The most recent series of MasterChef: The Professionals continued to air in a storm of allegations against Wallace, with two of MasterChef’s celebrity birthday specials, the Celebrity MasterChef Christmas Cook Off and Strictly Festive Extravaganza, being pulled from the BBC’s festive schedule.
Waley’s lawyers previously told the BBC “it is completely untrue that he is engaging in behavior of a sexually harassing nature”.