Nothing’s eating lucky MasterChef judge John
British media declared the cookery TV show ‘cursed’ after Torode and fellow judge, Gregg Wallace, split from their wives.
After jetting into Dublin to judge Three Mobile’s search for Ireland’s best fish dish, chef Torode, 48, an Australian, says he’s lucky.
“I don’t think there’s any curse of MasterChef,” he says. “I think MasterChef is amazing. Life is good, so I feel very, very lucky.”
Torode became a household name after replacing Gary Rhodes as judge on the amateur cooking competition in 2005. MasterChef is the world’s most popular cookery show, broadcast in 40 countries, including an RTÉ version with Nick Munier and Dylan McGrath.
“Day-to-day cooking has always been going on,” says Torode, who started as a sous chef at Le Pont de la Tour, before opening his own restaurant, Smiths of Smithfields (and later The Luxe), in London.
“I think we just see it more now. Most of these shows, like MasterChef and Come Dine With Me, are about hobby cooks — people who search out ingredients and spend half a day cooking. You can eat at home very, very well, but I do believe that a lot of the time we try to overcomplicate it.”
After more than three decades as a chef, there isn’t much he hasn’t tried. “As a chef, you’ve got to be unshockable. Some of the combinations I’ve eaten you would slightly keel over about. I think the strangest thing I’ve ever had was whale’s vomit, which you make into a jelly [by] adding orange and other bits and pieces.
“I don’t have any qualms about it at all. [An] endangered species is something you don’t want to be going for,” he says.
“If I was offered something which I knew was road kill, maybe I would eat a bit of elephant — but I’m not going to go and eat baboon.”
At the Three Mobile event, John fell hook, line and sinker for winner Hugh Sweeney’s smoked Donegal salmon and spinach lasagne with lemon cheese sauce.
One thing that won’t impress him on MasterChef, however, are ‘flash-in-the-pan’ food trends.
“Most of them are pretty shit, to be really honest with you. For me, somebody who puts balsamic vinegar on a strawberry is completely nuts. “Every so often, [on MasterChef] we get people who’ll do some strange combination; you get to the stage where things just do not go together.
“I remember somebody cooking me a piece of cod with mozzarella once and it was disgusting.
“I don’t think I’ve ever gotten food poisoning,” says Torode, “but I have felt ill a couple of times.
“One day, we tasted something like 42 dishes and I felt properly ill. Gregg and I have both got the constitution of an ox.”
Despite being considered a silver fox among female fans, Torode — who’s reportedly dating actress, Lisa Faulkner — says he struggles with his weight as much as anyone.
“It’s difficult,” he says. “I go up and down in weight, quite a bit. It’s a matter of really just watching what you eat when you’re not filming.
“I also cycle as much as I possibly can.”
Unlike Michelin-starred chef, Martin Burge, who banned the use of cameras at his restaurant, Torode encourages foodies to tweet before they eat.
“Gregg hates the idea of people tweeting what they’re eating, but I think it’s brilliant,” he says.
“If chefs are embarrassed by their food, there’s something wrong.
“Likewise, at home, you cook something nice, you’re proud of it, take a picture of it and send it out.”
“Twitter, Facebook and Instagram have changed the way in which we cook and eat,” he says. “There’s food everywhere.
“Twenty years ago, you wouldn’t eat Thai food unless you travelled there; now, you demand it.”
Today’s ‘food porn’ phenomenon is unlikely to bother Torode too much, after he bowed out of the restaurant business earlier this year.
“I had some business partners [and] we agreed it was time for me to move on,” he says. “I was ready to do so, so I sold my stake.
“I will go back and do it again.
“At the moment, I’m having a nice time enjoying life.”
Despite having dined in some of the world’s most exclusive eateries, Torode still says his most memorable meals were in back yards and on beaches.
“I’ve had the most incredible bowl of pasta and ceps, in Rome, and the most amazing duck egg and condensed milk omelette, from a street stall in Bangkok, but I still think the best food is about the company,” Torode says.
“Some of the best food I’ve eaten has been on a beach in Portugal, surrounded by friends; something simple, like a piece of grilled fish on a barbecue with some chopped salad, rice and a bottle of rosé.
“Something happens to people in very exclusive restaurants,” says Torode. “They go all reverent and a bit scared, and then the fun goes.
“I think that’s a real shame. Food shouldn’t be like that.
“[Dublin restaurateur] Joe Macken has got it absolutely right with Crackbird and Bear,” he says. “He’s serving good food to everybody.
“Good food is about having fun — and that means using your fingers, having a beer and wearing whatever you want.”
www.three.ie
Three Mobile’s search for Ireland’s Best Fish Dish winner Hugh Sweeney’s smoked Donegal salmon and spinach lasagne with lemon cheese sauce
450g Irish Donegal Bay Smoked Salmon
400g Irish Spinach
300g Irish Cherry Tomatoes
150g Irish Leek
100g Irish Cheddar
100g Lynch farm Mozzarella (Cork)
2 Cloves Irish Garlic
15g Irish Butter
Lasagnes sheets (or make you own fresh which is better — Irish)
Mixed fresh Irish herbs (chives, dill, Parsley)
250ml Milk
250ml cream
20g cheddar
20g Regatto: Irish imokilly
250g Irish Yeats Country cream cheese
1 to 1.5 lemons depending on size (not Irish)
Atlantic sea salt/pepper/nutmeg
Sauté crushed garlic in Donegal rapeseed oil and butter for 30 seconds then add leek until it is sautéed down. Add spinach until its wilts down and add sea salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.
Add milk and cream to a saucepan with the herbs and seasoning and let the flavours infuse. When the sauce is about to simmer add cream cheese until it is fully dissolved.
This should do enough to thicken sauce to the right consistency . Whisk in the juice from the lemons. Add more lemon or seasoning to taste. Set aside.
Chop up cherry tomatoes in good chunk size.
Now layer up your lasagne.
Start with a layer of cheese sauce at the bottom of the dish then add a layer of lasagne sheets then more cheese sauce.
Now add a layer of smoked salmon. Next add a layer of the spinach mix and then cherry tomatoes. Sprinkle with cheddar and mozzarella. Repeat this process finishing with lasagne and cheese sauce.
Bake at 190C for 30min. Served with fresh seasonal Irish leaves with a simple lemon dressing: This is a truly tasty dish.
