Everything You Need to Know About ‘Celebrity Masterchef’ 2020

Celebrity Masterchef 2020 is here, with Jon Torode and Gregg Wallace welcoming another suite of 20 celebrities into their realm, where “cooking doesn’t get tougher than this,” except when it does, like in Masterchef and Masterchef: The Professionals, where the challenges are, well, tougher.

The initial heats on Celebrity Masterchef are made up of five challenges: the invention test; the professional kitchen round; the back-to-back challenge; mass catering; and a critics’ round. Here’s how they go:

Celebrity Masterchef 2020: Market Test

The staple. The starter. The classic. It’s really another Masterchef classic, The Invention Test, but renamed to account for a room full of food market. It’s for setting a benchmark, and also holds potential for great disaster.

Celebrity Masterchef 2020: Professional Kitchen Round

It is a truth universally acknowledged that:

This is the round in which innocent London restaurants are expected to coax total amateurs through service, offering both great potential for disaster and a telling insight into which restaurants are actually willing to subject themselves to potential debasement.

Celebrity Masterchef 2020: Back-to-Back Round

A fundamentally weird round. The four contestants are split into pairs, and each pair has to cook the same dish, identically. The catch is that they are separated by a wall. It’s a communication test, but it’s also often skewed, with one pair having a significantly easier or more-easy-to-make-the-same dish than the other.

Celebrity Masterchef 2020: Mass Catering

This never changes. Hundreds of hungry workers; a tight time limit; a curry, a crumble, and a vegetarian option that would be a crying shame to most. They are always late, there is always serious jeopardy, and it always ends up totally fine in the end.

Celebrity Masterchef 2020: Critics

On the other Masterchef programmes, previous winners judge this round, with national critics joining further down the line. The same is true here. The level of insight is always the same. Go figure.

[SPOILERS AHEAD FOR CELEBRITY MASTERCHEF 2020]

Celebrity Masterchef 2020 Contestants

Heat 1

• Thomas Skinner, erstwhile Apprentice contestant.
• Shyko Amos, star of BBC drama Death in Paradise.
• Myles Stephenson, of X Factor-made band Rak-Su.
• Judi Love, comedian and Loose Women panellist.
• John Barnes, former international footballer.

Celebrity Masterchef 2020 Heat One: A Round-Up

Heat 2

• Phil Daniels, longtime Londoner-playing actor and ‘Parklife’ monologuer.
• Baga Chipz, drag artist and star of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK.
• Sam Quek, former field hockey player and Olympic gold medal-winner.
• Karen Gibson, gospel choir founder conductor, who led ‘Stand By Me’ at the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.
• Dominic Littlewood, consumer affairs presenter and general wrong-righter.

Celebrity Masterchef 2020 Heat Two: A Round-Up

Heat 3

• Felicity Montagu, longtime actor most famous for putting up with Alan Partridge.
• Lady Leshurr, pop culture rapper, singer, and songwriter best known for her Queen’s Speech freestyle series.
• Amar Latif, TV presenter and entrepreneur, and the first blind contestant on Masterchef U.K.
• Gethin Jones, Blue Peter presenter turned non-Blue Peter presenter.
• Jeff Brazier, Reality TV figure and This Morning regular, known for being the decent guy on castaway drama Shipwrecked many years ago.

Celebrity Masterchef 2020 Heat Three: A Round-Up

Heat 4

• Judy Murray, Elite tennis coach, former British Fed Cup captain, and [something about Andy Murray]
• Riyadh Khalaf, Queer Britain and Unexpected Fluids presenter, influencer, and YouTuber.
• Matthew Pinsent, Olympic gold medal amasser, sports presenter, and member of the “I’m sure he’s already done this show” club.
• Pete Wicks, longstanding The Only Way Is Essex cast member, yet to succumb to the other-reality-show circuit until now.
• Crissy Rock, actor best known for Ladybird (1994), Benidorm, and autobiography This Heart Within Me Burns.

Celebrity Masterchef 2020 Finalists

• Riyadh Khalaf, Queer Britain and Unexpected Fluids presenter, influencer, and YouTuber.
• Matthew Pinsent, Olympic gold medal amasser, sports presenter, and member of the “I’m sure he’s already done this show” club.
• Amar Latif, TV presenter and entrepreneur, and the first blind contestant on Masterchef U.K.
• Gethin Jones, Blue Peter presenter turned non-Blue Peter presenter.
• Sam Quek, former field hockey player and Olympic gold medal-winner.
• Phil Daniels, longtime Londoner-playing actor and ‘Parklife’ monologuer.
• Judi Love, comedian and Loose Women panellist.
• Thomas Skinner, erstwhile Apprentice contestant.

Celebrity Masterchef 2020 Champion

The Celebrity Masterchef 2020 champion is Riyadh Khalaf, who beat off Sam Quek and Matthew Pinsent to take the title.