Who Is Grace Dent? Meet MasterChef’s New Judge
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22 hours ago
Everything you need to know about the food critic
Grace Dent has been confirmed as the new MasterChef judge following the departure of Gregg Wallace, who stepped down in late November following allegations of misconduct. So what do we know about the show’s newest star?
Grace Dent Confirmed As New MasterChef Judge
Who Is Grace Dent?
Grace Dent, 51, is a restaurant critic, bestselling author and podcaster, with a 15-year career in the media world. But how did she get there? Born in 1973 in Carlisle, Grace discovered her writing talent early on, and after studying at Stirling University she headed to London to pursue a career in journalism. ‘I knew that I was good with words,’ she said in an interview. ‘I was always good at telling stories and making people laugh. But I still don’t see myself as a journalist. I am literally the worst person at writing up facts. Very early on in my career, my editor started to look at my copy and go: “but Grace, did any of this actually happen?”‘.
Grace’s started out as editorial assistant at Marie Claire, going on to freelance for titles like Glamour and Cosmopolitan. And in 2011 she was offered a restaurant column in the Evening Standard called Grace and Flavour. But Grace’s biggest break came in 2017 when she became the Guardian’s restaurant critic – which she has described as her dream job.
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Her Book, Hungry
Grace charts her journey to becoming one of Britain’s best-known food voices in a 2020 memoir, titled Hungry. The book charts how her early life shaped her relationship with food: she describes growing up in a working-class family, ‘surviving on Findus crispy pancakes, salad cream and butterscotch Angel Delight’, and first discovering the big supermarkets of Carlisle. Hungry isn’t just about food though: it’s also a moving love letter to her father, George, who sadly passed away in 2022 after a battle with dementia.
Her Podcast, Comfort Eating
In her chart-topping podcast Comfort Eating, Grace chats to a string of celebrities about their foodie tales, with previous guests including Graham Norton, Katherine Ryan, Jon Ronson, Suranne Jones and Stephen Fry.
‘In 2020, when we began working on a format for the podcast, the idea was to find a new way to talk to famous folk about their inner lives via what slides down their throats,’ she said in a piece for the Guardian. ‘Modern eating, I believe, divides into two distinct categories: the nutritious or name-droppy things that we’re proud to talk about, or to Instagram and generally broadcast, and the more revealing, non-pretty, downright weird things we never discuss in public. And it’s the latter that is Comfort Eating’s bread and butter, pardon the pun – that’s where the truth about people’s egos, vulnerabilities and priorities lies.’
Was Grace Dent On I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here?
In 2023 Grace starred on ITV’s I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here, but after 15 days she left the show, citing medical reasons. In a statement, she said she was ‘removed’ from the jungle but did not go into any more detail, adding: ‘I am overwhelmingly sad right now, but determined to keep alive in my heart the huge personal breakthroughs I made over the weeks.’
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Joining MasterChef
Grace’s new MasterChef role makes sense: she has been a regular guest on the show for many years, as well as competing as a contestant on MasterChef: Battle of the Critics 2023. ‘I’ve been watching MasterChef since I was a girl sitting with my dad on the sofa,’ she said. ‘My whole family watches it. It’s all about uncovering and championing talent and to have ended up in this position, is more than a dream to me. I’m so excited that I can’t eat, which is severely detrimental to a restaurant critic.’
She’ll be joining long-standing judge John Torode on the show, who has described her as ‘the perfect person to step in’ for the next Celebrity MasterChef series. ‘She has been an excellent guest, an inspiring critic and also set some incredible challenges. Expertise is what MasterChef is all about, from the contestants to our wonderful production team, to us as judges.’
WATCH
All episodes of MasterChef are available to stream on BBC iPlayer.
