Celebrity MasterChef 2024 - Meet the celebrities cooking in week four

Published: 2 September 2024

The VIPs have arrived with the who's who of music, comedy, drama, sport and show business battling it out to become Celebrity MasterChef Champion 2024. Over six weeks, 20 famous faces are throwing themselves into the biggest culinary challenge of their lives. John Torode and Gregg Wallace are putting their taste buds through a sensory assault course, as they discover which celebrities have the palate and skill to chop, slice and sizzle their way to lifting the iconic Celebrity MasterChef trophy.

It's time for the fourth and final Heat week, which will see the last five celebrities of this year's competition take to the culinary stage. The last group of celebrities taking a punt on winning the title are TV Personality Diane Carson, Make-Up Artist and TV Judge Dominic Skinner, Pop Star, Mutya Buena, BBC Radio 2 Presenter OJ Borg, and Professional Dancer and Choreographer Vito Coppola.

They will jump straight in at the deep end, as they take on Under The Cloche. Each celebrity must pick a mystery ingredient that they must sprinkle with a bit of culinary magic.

Then all five head back to the stoves, where John and Gregg will challenge them to each cook two Dinner Party Dishes that will leave a lasting impression - for the right reasons! If the celebrities' food is up to MasterChef standards, the judges will be left with an incredibly tough decision.

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• Watch this weeks episodes of Celebrity MasterChef on BBC iPlayer now
• Watch Celebrity MasterChef on BBC One from Tuesday 3 September at 8pm

Meet the Celebrities

Diane Carson

TV Personality

What made you want to do Celebrity MasterChef?

"It was mostly through persuasion, my kids thought it'd be great. They love watching Celebrity MasterChef. They thought it'd be fun, and I suppose, a bit of a challenge to see if I could get a kick start into entertaining again! For years, I've always had family and friends around and I've loved entertaining.

I'm very happy to try out new recipes with friends - If they don't work, they don't work. Our house had been undergoing some building work and I had been without a proper kitchen or a fully functional oven for about a year when I was asked to take part in Celebrity MasterChef. I certainly hadn't been entertaining! Indeed, I was practising some of my MasterChef dishes alongside a staircase being installed!"

What was it like walking into the MasterChef kitchen for the first time?

"Surreal, as everything has been since The Traitors. Who would have known this time last year! I saw lots of friendly faces and felt very supported."

How does your cooking go down with friends and family?

"Well, I suppose a lot of the nation know how it goes down with Ross! I think my family and friends think I only cook when I'm entertaining and when I've got large amounts of friends around, which is probably true, because most of the time during the week, I'm far too busy to spend any time cooking, so it's generally just something quick. But I do love cooking for friends."

What is your favourite dish to cook vs. your favourite to eat?

"I love cheese souffles, that's one of my favourite foods. I also love a roast dinner with ox cheek or pig's cheek. That's one of my favourite meats of all time., I would never cook them though, in case the raw version looked like a cheek, and then I would never be able to eat it again - I'm quite easily put off by the appearance of raw meat!

"When I go out, if ox cheek or pig cheek, or any sort of pulled meats are on the menu, I will have that dish.

"One of the other things I like to do is lemon pudding. Mainly because it reminds me of my mum and my O-Level exam, where we had to cook lemon pudding for our practical, and my mum knew the recipe because it was something that she used to cook when she was sixteen at school as well in cookery lessons. She warned me that the time that had been given for the recipe was far too long, I would need, to take it out of the oven before the given time in my exam. I was the only one in a class of thirty, that didn't have theirs burnt. So, I passed, and that's because of my mum's advice, and that's because of lemon pudding!"

Dominic Skinner

Make-Up Artist and TV Judge

What made you want to do Celebrity MasterChef? 

"I've always loved cooking. What started out as necessity, turned into a real love and joy for cooking, but I'll never say that I was any good, and neither would any my friends or family! They would never have told me that I should have entered Celebrity MasterChef, absolutely not. But in a way, that's why I wanted to. I wanted to prove them wrong!"

What was it like walking into the MasterChef kitchen for the first time?

"I don't think I've ever been so nervous in all my life. I was physically shaking the whole way through that first day. It was terrifying, but John and Gregg made me feel so welcome and really encouraged me, and I started to really enjoy it. It ended up being one of the best experiences of my life."

How does your cooking go down with friends and family? 

"Well, they eat my food, I don't really give them a choice, because I always end up cooking, and it's because I love cooking. I think sometimes I surprise them with what I do cook, but I think most of the time they just put a brave face on and smile through it. But I haven't killed anyone yet!"

What is your favourite dish to cook vs. your favourite to eat? 

"I really love the flavours of East Asian cooking. I love the spices, I love the interesting flavours, the combinations and the bright colours. It just really sings to me. So, one of my favourite things to cook is Bang Bang chicken. I just love the flavour, I love the rush and it's so easy to cook.

"The one thing I absolutely adore to eat is sushi, and it is the one thing I would love to learn how to cook. But I'm so scared of the technical aspect of it, but you never know, one day I might make sushi!"

Mutya Buena

Pop Star

What made you want to do Celebrity MasterChef? 

"I wanted to do Celebrity MasterChef because I enjoy cooking in general and I love cooking for my family and friends. I also wanted to learn some new things in the kitchen, some new tricks that I could bring home. I kind of kept it a secret from everyone that I was doing it!"

What was it like walking into the MasterChef kitchen for the first time?

"It was very nerve-wracking. I've obviously watched MasterChef, so to be in the kitchen itself was amazing. I wish I could do it all over again! I was so happy to have just been in the kitchen and in everyone's presence."

How does your cooking go down with friends and family? 

"I've never had a complaint before, so I'm guessing everyone seems to love my cooking. I do enjoy cooking for friends and family and it's something I do pretty much all the time anyway. The only time I don't cook is when I'm really tired, but even then, I do try as much as possible."

What is your favourite dish to cook vs. your favourite to eat? 

"I enjoy cooking any type of meat with rice and veg. I think it's just always easy. My favourite food to eat would probably be seafood. I love all types of fish, except for salmon!"

OJ Borg

BBC Radio 2 Presenter

What made you want to do Celebrity MasterChef? 

"I wanted to be a better cook. I mean, that's the obvious answer, and I had two choices. One, I found a rat to live in my head and operate me like the film Ratatouille, but that didn't seem particularly possible, or hygienic! The other way was to join Celebrity MasterChef and just learn to cook more dishes. The problem is sometimes that we all spend our time in the kitchen, and we think we're good at cooking, but can you do it under that pressure? When you've got two people staring at you, asking you why you've put too much salt in…"

What was it like walking into the MasterChef kitchen for the first time?

"I was so nervous walking into that MasterChef kitchen for the first time, I had an anxiety dream the night before, where I spent the entire night thinking I'd burnt a frozen pizza in the oven, and John was really disappointed in me! But yeah, you walk into that kitchen, everyone's silent. No one talks, they stand there, they stare at you. There's a bit of a smile, maybe on Gregg's face. When I walked in I didn't know what to do with my hands, I didn't know where to look. I couldn't stop giggling and it wasn't because I was finding it funny - It was because I was nervous!"

How does your cooking go down with friends and family? 

"The stuff I do cook at home goes down all right with my family and friends.

We've got pizza oven that hasn't been used this year, but when we have friends over, I'll knock up a batch of dough, and the dough is great, and I've got into spinning it, and I can make the lovely sauces and things to go on top and make nice pizzas.

"I tend to cook for the kids as well, I'll do them macaroni cheese or noodles and edamame. So, everyone seems to like what I cook, but I'm not what you'd call a particularly over the top flamboyant chef."

What is your favourite dish to cook vs. your favourite to eat?

"I think my favourite dish to cook and my favourite dish to eat are possibly the same thing - pizza. I love the preparation, I love the stress of whether the dough is going to rise. I love knocking it out, and the physicality of throwing it around. If you've got an open fire and a pizza oven, like I do, you're constantly doing things with it, and you're watching it burn and watching the flames, it just feels really primal. I love everything about it!"

Vito Coppola

Professional Dancer and Choreographer

What made you want to do Celebrity MasterChef? 

"It has always been a very big passion of mine to cook and since I've left my home at a very young age, I had to cook for myself on my own and learn how to do it. Since I was a kid, I remember helping my mum, my grandmother and all my family, cooking and making pasta and doing things. I've always loved cooking and of course, I enjoy food so, I enjoy eating as well.

"Since being in the UK, I've tried to practice and to cook for myself. And sometimes I cook for the other Strictly pros, I bring some dessert, some cake, in for them and I want feedback! The first person who told me to go on Celebrity MasterChef was Dianne and I remember last year, after her first episode, she posted a story, and she gave me a shoutout and said: "yeah, I think you should do it!"

What was it like walking into the MasterChef kitchen for the first time? "Wow, I will never forget that moment, I was feeling butterflies in the stomach. I was super excited, a bit scared, a bit of that good anxiety like when you are a kid, and you go on a roller coaster for the first time.

"I wanted to enjoy every single moment, and I need to be fast, because one big issue for me is the time - I like to take my time when I cook. The atmosphere was very welcoming and I met the others and we were like, okay, guys, we are all in the same boat. Let's do this all together!"

How does your cooking go down with friends and family? 

"It's different with my friends vs my family! My friends enjoy my food, and I've always cooked or prepared for them - things like birthday cake or a nice dessert. My friends let me do what I want, they appreciate, they don't give notes. They like whatever I do, and they enjoy it so much. My family, they're a bit more particular, because I've learned from them. So, they keep giving me notes, and they don't let me do any cooking unless they are there next to me!

"My grandparents were the only two people in my family who knew that I was going to do this, I made them promise if I'm good on Celebrity MasterChef then they'll allow me to cook for them once, without them watching me and giving me tips, and just enjoy the food!"

What is your favourite dish to cook vs. your favourite to eat?

"I love dessert, I love cake, I love biscuits. I prefer to eat sweet food, more than savoury stuff. But I like to cook basically everything and I always like to try new things. I can't say one thing in particular, I just like to cook and to eat everything!"