With Celebrity MasterChef 2023 well underway, we’ve already been treated to thrills, spills and Cheryl Hole’s early elimination.
But before Max George and Sam Fox were setting Gregg and John’s tastebuds alight, a whole host of celebs have been welcomed into the Celebrity MasterChef kitchen.
Here, as the competition heats up in series 18 of the BBC hit show, we take a look the greatest of all time contestants (GOAT) and the dizzying culinary heights they’ve gone on to achieve…
Celebrity MasterChef GOATs: Jayne Middlemiss
MasterChef champion Jayne won the show in 2009 and said: “I hope this is just the start of my culinary journey.” She impressed the judges with a three-course meal of seared scallops, pan-fried veal and a lavender pannacotta – but it was her “rock star” moment that caught our eye.
She told Virgin Radio: “I was cooking in a kitchen in Morocco, in the Atlas Mountains in Morocco. It was like this really, really fancy hotel. I was making something in the oven, I think I was doing some sort of French trimmed lamb. Some of the fat from the lamb got on the flame and it exploded with fire. All I did was I just picked up a towel and whip the fire out and just kept cooking. I just took the tea towel and bashed it out and carried on like nothing had happened. I literally felt like a rock star!”
She’s been in the spotlight for decades now and her net worth is estimated at being between £750k and £4m. We know what we’d prefer in our bank account!
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Lisa Faulkner
Lisa, 51, was crowned the 2010 winner after beating Christine Hamilton and Dick Strawbridge in the final showdown. The actress and TV presenter went on to marry MasterChef judge John Torode and the cute couple even host a cooking programme together, John and Lisa’s Weekend Kitchen.
Lisa has launched a successful culinary career since her MasterChef win, publishing four cookbooks and sharing her recipes with online supermarket Ocado. She’s even been back for the 2023 series, judging this year’s hopeful’s dishes.
A true Celebrity MasterChef GOAT, Lisa is reported to have amassed a fortune estimated to be as high as £4m!
PR and Brand Expert Nick Ede exclusively told ED!: “The winners of MasterChef who go on to use their popularity and skills can commercially make a lot of money. Lisa Faulkner with her husband John Torode is the biggest winner with best-selling books and endorsements centred around food. She has become a millionaire post-win and gave up acting to present and it’s worked.”
Nadia Sawalha
Long before she became a Loose Woman, Nadia Sawalha was cooking up a storm in the kitchen. In fact, her ace cookery skills landed her the second-ever Celebrity MasterChef trophy back in 2007.
Nadia beat Strictly’s Craig Revel-Horwood to the top spot and even went on to host Junior MasterChef. She became the bestselling author of Greedy Girl’s Diet and has hosted several cookery shows since, including Sunday Scoop, Kitchen SOS, Saturday Cookbook and Nadia’s Family Feasts.
She took inspiration from busy households around the world as she searched for new ideas for recipes that would fit into hectic schedules. Each week, she was joined by a guest chef with a passion or expertise in that cuisine.
She’s also been cooking with her sister Dina on YouTube since January 2023 and has a reported net worth of around £3m.
Our expert Nick added: “Publishing books can be a real winner financially with an advance and percentage of sales which can reach up to £100k if the book is a bestseller like Nadia and Lisa’s have been. Money is also made from social media posts Another winner is Angellica Bell, who is a consumer champion. She centred her cooking around her kids and her bestselling book was in the charts for months.”
She has a reported net worth of around £1m.
Celebrity MasterChef GOATs: Lisa Snowdon
The menus are still fresh in our mind as the lovely Lisa only won the show last year.
In the final, she served Gregg and John mackerel with rhubarb and a fennel slaw as a starter and pan-fried duck for main. She completed the competition by whipping up a tart with a chocolate ganache and biscuit base.
After learning that she had won, Lisa burst into tears. “I’m honestly so blown away. It’s such a life-changing experience. I feel like this isn’t real!”
Fighting back tears, she said: “I just can’t believe it. I couldn’t have wanted to win something that meant more to me than this.” She added: “I can’t wait to tell my mum, my dad and my nephew. I am on cloud nine.”
While fans thought rival cook Melanie Blatt was “robbed”, we’re more than happy to pop round to Lisa’s gaff for dinner any day of the week! She’s thought to have amassed a fortune of around £2.5m.
Joe Swash
Joe Swash makes our GOAT list purely because God loves a trier. He’s been on the show twice – once in 2021 and then he returned later that year for the Christmas special.
However, viewers of the show didn’t quite have the same love for Joe as us, with some threatening to boycott the show if he won. Luckily for hosts Gregg and John and the BBC’s viewing figures, he wasn’t crowned winner of the show – in either series!
He’s had the last laugh, though. Not only has Joe released his own cookbook, he was also a regular on ITV show Jeremy Pang’s Asian Kitchen. So turns out his visits to the MasterChef kitchen weren’t in vain. GOAT status earned Joe, for turning two failed attempts to win into a pretty successful culinary career. He’s thought to have a net worth of around £1.5m.
Liz McClarnon
Famous for being one third of Atomic Kitten, Liz was actually the winner of series three of Celebrity MasterChef back in 2008.
When she won, she said: “I can’t believe it. I’m so proud, all that hard work has finally paid off. I’m so glad I won. It was such a tough journey for someone who couldn’t cook.”
She contributed to The Liverpool Cookbook and regularly shares her recipes with the likes of Love Food, foodie website MyFood and she even produced a pilot for her own cooking show. She also shares her cooking skills with fans on YouTube.
Liz has an estimated net worth of around £8m.
‘Justice for Bez!’
Happy Mondays star Bez was such a firm favourite during the 2021 series of Celebrity MasterChef that viewers threatened to switch off when he didn’t win! The musician became a fan favourite thanks to his laid-back attitude and attempt to stir pasta with a rolling pin. But when he had some trouble with his flatbreads, Bez failed to impress John Torode and Gregg Wallace.
And when the judges booted Bez off, viewers took to social media in their droves. One lamented: “#JusticeforBez Why did they eliminate Bez? It’s an outrage!” While another said: “Genuinely gutted Bez went tonight – probably the most instinctive chefs there.”
Celebrity MasterChef is on tonight (August 18) on BBC One at 9pm.
Read more: Celebrity MasterChef’s John Torode cuts hair after distracting fans with long locks.
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