Angellica Bell crowned BBC One's Celebrity MasterChef Champion
Angellica Bell has been crowned champion of BBC One’s Celebrity MasterChef 2017, it was announced today.
Published: 22 September 2017
There have been some incredible moments. It is those moments where you just say ‘wow’ - they will stay with me forever.
After four weeks of heats, two weeks of gruelling semi-finals and finals, and an incredibly emotional final cook-off, Angellica has beaten 19 celebrities to be awarded her trophy by judges John Torode and Gregg Wallace.
TV Presenter, Angellica Bell, says: “I'm overwhelmed to become this year’s Celebrity MasterChef Champion - it has been one of the most stressful yet rewarding experiences I've ever been through! I didn't realise just how passionate I was about food and how much I thrived on learning more. When John and Gregg announced my name, I was beyond thrilled and I want to thank them and the show for allowing me to have this experience.”
Gregg Wallace says: “Angellica is one of the best Celebrity MasterChef contestants I have ever seen, her food has elegance and style. As the competition has gone on she has got technically better. I think she is a very, very worthy winner.”
Speaking on the final John Torode says: “Angellica makes sure everything that she does is done to absolute perfection. Throughout this competition Angellica has pushed herself. Give her an opportunity to learn she sucks it up and does it brilliantly. Today she has done herself proud.”
Throughout the final week Angellica, alongside other finalists Dev Griffin and Ulrika Jonsson, had to draw on everything she had learnt over the course of the competition, and cook to the very highest standards to impress judges John Torode and Gregg Wallace.
The series of final challenges included: surviving John Torode’s highly complex Palate Test; producing a two-course menu for the infamous restaurant critics; and one of the toughest and most daunting challenges of the competition - The Chef’s Table. This saw the competitors cook a Michelin-star standard three-course meal hosted by three Michelin starred chef Jason Atherton at City Social. The three finalists delivered exceptional food to impress a table of undoubtedly some of the best culinary talent in the country - Marcus Wareing, Alyn Williams, Lisa Allen, Atul Kochhar and Nieves Barragan-Mohacho.
The final task was to cook and present a faultless three-course meal for judges John Torode and Gregg Wallace in two-and-a-half hours. Angellica had to demonstrate all she had learnt about modern cuisine and difficult techiques to produce professional standard food, and some of the best viewers have ever seen in any Celebrity MasterChef competition. Her winning menu consisted of a starter of Camembert, fig and onion tart, a main of Pan-fried halibut and king prawns with a creamy vermouth sauce, and a dessert of Pear Bourdaloue, which Gregg describes as ‘nothing short of brilliant, one of the best desserts I have ever tasted’, and John delivers a similar critique calling it ‘perfect in every way, shape and form’.
On her MasterChef journey Angellica says: “There have been some incredible moments. It is those moments where you just say ‘wow’ - they will stay with me forever.”
Angellica follows in the footsteps of previous winners Alexis Conran, Kimberly Wyatt, Sophie Thompson, Ade Edmondson, Emma Kennedy, Phil Vickery, Lisa Faulkner, Jayne Middlemiss, Liz McClarnon, Nadia Sawalha and Matt Dawson.
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