ITV has unveiled the celebrity and chef line up for its new all star cookery series, Cooking With The Stars.
Hosted by Emma Willis and Tom Allen the brand new series Cooking With The Stars, with co-funding by Marks & Spencer, will see eight celebrities take part.
Each will be partnered with a professional chef who will mentor, teach and take them from passionate amateur to restaurant level chefs.
Alongside the main show, Woody & Kleiny will present an online spin-off show Extra Helpings on YouTube here.
Cooking With The Stars airs Tuesday nights at 9PM on ITV and ITV Hub. Meet the line up of celebrities and pro chefs below…
Cooking With The Stars line up
Catherine Tyldesley
Mentored by renowned chef and business owner Tristan Welch.
Says Catherine: “I absolutely love cooking. I’ve always cooked, on my Instagram I bore people senseless with pictures of chicken. You cook what you know and I tend to cook a lot of healthy food. If someone would have said to me, can you make your own pasta from scratch? The answer would have been no. Or can you make a soufflé?
“I’ve always wanted to acquire these skills for a long time. I’ve thought about doing a course. So, when this opportunity came my way, it was a no brainer. It’s the most amazing experience”
Griff Rhys-Jones
Mentored by renowned chef and business owner Ronnie Murray.
Griff says: “I used to cook more. I am a lapsed culinarian. Mrs Jones now cooks so well that I have got lazy. This is good to get me back in the kitchen. I will rattle those pots and pans. In truth, I now eat a fussy diet of no carbs. So, I prepare salads and lay out the cold salmon for lunch or make an omlette, and don’t do the sort of complicated dishes I mastered when I was but young”
Shirley Ballas
Mentored by culinary expert and regular chef on This Morning Joseph Denison Carey.
Says Shirley: “My mother and my son don’t have much faith in my cooking ability. And my mother, I think, wanted to be a little bit amused at me learning how to cook. I thought I would sign up for my 84-year-old mother but then I would give it 100 per cent of everything I’ve got to learn about everything there is to do in a kitchen, of which I know nothing.”
Harry Judd
Mentored by food writer and restaurant owner Nisha Katona
Says Harry: “Well, the thing is I’ve never cooked really. Every now and again randomly I have this career where I get these opportunities to learn a skill and if it’s something that I’m interested in and something that I think that would be good to learn well it’s such a privilege to spend time with a professional in their field, learning one on one.
“Just like when I did Strictly -you’ve got one on one professional dance tuition. And my cooking experience is very limited. My mum’s a good cook but I’m afraid I didn’t take any of those skills from her. Literally I’m talking microwave, toaster and occasionally a bit of oven action.”
Denise Van Outen
Mentored by Italian chef and restaurateur Francesco Mazzei.
Says Denise: “I don’t do the cooking at home. Eddie [Denise’s partner] does and always has done. I’ve just become very lazy in as much as…well I guess I’m so busy all the time anyway and I always feel like cooking takes forever… So, I just thought I really do want to learn. My daughter now is 11 and she’s now starting to say to me things like, when are you going to cook a meal?!
“I just thought what an opportunity, to be able to work with the chefs and just learn proper cooking from scratch. For me, it’s just an absolute privilege to have the opportunity.”
Naughty Boy
Mentored by Korean chef and restaurateur Judy Joo
Says Naughty: “After my Beyoncé song came out I think in 2016 the following year my mum had a stroke and I put my new album on hold for 3 years, well we are going into the 4th year now. Because mum couldn’t cook anymore I started to cook for her and mum lives with me with her carer.
“I don’t want anybody to think I’m a TV guy, I’m not and I never do TV but I love cooking. I started cooking when my mum stopped cooking. I wanted her to have the food she enjoyed because every carer is different and they might not cook the food she likes. I made it my task to learn how to cook everything my mum used to cook.
“It wasn’t something I wanted to tick of my list but I’ve become a chef at home. Everyone loves my food, my friends and my family. I didn’t know how to cook three years ago. ”
AJ Odudu
Mentored by chef director Jack Stein.
Says AJ: “I signed up because I love a challenge and basically over the last year I’ve just got really into cooking, by myself in my own kitchen. That’s been predominantly me learning how to make Nigerian dishes that my mums always taught me. So,I thought why not go gourmet”
Johnny Vegas
Mentored by British chef and TV presenter Rosemary Shrager.
Says Johnny: “I’d never made a sauce, I’d never made a curry, I’d never cooked Thai and I’d never cooked fish. All the things I love but I’ve never had the confidence. I’ve cooked a dish with Rosemary and it’s the nicest version of a curry that I’ve ever had.
“For my son I cook all the time but I’ve been on my own a lot these last 5 months. I’ve always wanted my son to see me cook as I saw my dad cook. I love to cook but I only have a handful of staples that I do and I’ve learnt to love the slow cooker, maybe I rely on it too much. I’ve never made separate sauces I was always a one pot cook.
“I’m terribly at cooking for myself, I’ll cook for my son and I’ll cook if there is family around but for the last 5 months it’s been ready meals for one. So, this was a massive shockto go from 5 months of ready meals to this, well talk about a U turn, it was more like a handbrake turn and it’s been incredible.”
Across a series of exciting cooking battles, the celebrities will be trained by their mentor chefs to produce delicious dishes that will be judged by the remaining professionals.
In each episode, the bottom two will then have to fight for their place in the competition, creating a dish without any help from their mentor.
The result of this eliminator will be decided by a blind tasting judgement from the professional chefs.
Unaware of whose food they are tasting, the greatest supporter could swiftly and unwittingly become the worst critic and vote for their protege to leave the competition.
Cooking With The Stars airs on ITV and ITV Hub on Tuesday nights at 9PM.
Picture: ITV/(C) South Shore
