Ready Steady Cook 2020 air date, chefs and revamped format

Ready Steady Cook is back for 2020 on BBC One this week – here’s all you need to know.

In a revamped format featuring Rylan Clark-Neal, Ready Steady Cook’s brand new series airs weekdays at 4:30PM on BBC One.

There are twenty episodes in the new series, running Monday-Fridays for four weeks.

Ready Steady Cook’s new format

In each episode, two contestants are paired up with a chef, going head to head in the newly designed Ready Steady Cook kitchen. But in this new series, the chefs face two different taste tests and the clock is always ticking!

In the first challenge, each contestant is armed with their bag of ingredients, all bought within a range of prices from £3.50 to £10. They have just 20 minutes to create delicious, surprising and inspiring dishes ready to wow the discerning studio audience.

There are further twists along the way including wildcard ingredients. The revamped second challenge is even faster, as each pair has just ten minutes to create yet more amazing dishes, this time based on audience ingredients cards.

Finally, in Ready Steady tradition, the winner is decided by the audience who have their say on the best dishes by voting with the iconic red tomato and green pepper voting cards.

Ready Steady Cook 2020 chefs

Five professional chefs are taking part in the new series.

Mike Reid

Follow Mike on Instagram @mikereidchef
With a career spanning 20 years on both sides of the globe, Mike Reid brings a wealth of experience to the RSC kitchen. He first fell in love with cooking while at university, and after choosing to follow his passion full time, found himself under the tutelage of Michel Roux Jr, Gordon Ramsay, and even cooking alongside Heston Blumenthal.

Romy Gill

Follow Romy on Instagram @romygill

Romy initially learned to cook from her mother while growing up in India. She moved to the UK for university and decided to make the UK her home. A trip to her local curry house left her longing for the authentic flavours of real Indian food and so she decided to open a restaurant, Romy’s Kitchen in Bristol.

Akis Petretzikis

Follow Akis on Instagram @akis_petretzikis

Akis discovered his true love was cooking whilst training to be an accountant. Within a year of finishing his degree he had gone on to become the first Greek winner of MasterChef, and later became Head Chef at Michel Roux’s Avenue Bistro. Since then he has become a regular name on Greek TV, fronting several of his own cooking shows, and even hosting the Greek version of Ready Steady Cook. With his own line of cookbooks, food products and his own (bilingual) YouTube channel, this is not a chef who shies away from a challenge.

Ellis Barrie

Follow Ellis Instagram @ellis.barrie

Ellis got his big break in cooking aged just 15, at Fellini’s in Liverpool. After developing his skills in restaurants across Liverpool and Australia, he eventually relocated to his family home in Anglesey, where with his brothers he turned an abandoned chicken shed on an old camp-site into one of the region’s most talked-about restaurants, the Marram Grass.

Anna Haugh

Follow Anna on Instagram @haughser

Anna grew up surrounded by a family who loved cooking and while her career has brought her through some of the top restaurants all over the UK and France, she has never lost touch with those Irish roots. After establishing herself at restaurants including London’s Pied à Terre and Paris’ Hotel Lotti, she helped launch Gordon Ramsay’s London House restaurant, acting as its first head chef. It was always her dream, however, to launch her own restaurant, and in 2019 that became a reality with Myrtle in Chelsea.

Ready Steady Cook airs weekdays at 4:30PM on BBC One.

Episodes are available to watch and catch up online via the BBC iPlayer.