Anna Haugh and Grace Dent replace MasterChef judges after 20 years
anna haugh debuted as a new MasterChef judge alongside Grace Dent when season 22 began on the, replacing John Torode and Gregg Wallace after nigh on 20 years at the table. The shift gives the cookery contest a different tone from the start, with the new pairing arriving after a year of allegations, investigations and cancellations around the long-running setup.
Season 22 opens with Dent
Season 22 is the first run to put Haugh and Dent at the centre of MasterChef, and the review says the show has shed its crusty, stale feel. That is a sharper brief than simple replacement: the series is being sold through its new chemistry as much as through continuity with the format.
“New hosts Grace Dent and chef Anna Haugh have shaken off the show’s crusty, stale feel.” The same review sums up the change in three words too: “It’s warmer, funnier, sharper.”
Myrtle and
Haugh brings her Myrtle kitchen credentials, while Dent comes in as restaurant critic. The pairing matters because both had already filled in as judges in the MasterChef universe, so season 22 does not read like a cold reset; it feels like a tested handover to people who already know the show’s rhythm.
Haugh also sounds less like a TV flourish than a working chef. The review says she is friendly with contestants, jokes with them, and tells them exactly when a dish has gone wrong.
“She will look you in the eye and tell you without pity that your vanilla and tahini cream has split, or that you should have binned your runny hollandaise and started again, instead of trying to rescue it with late, raw flour.”
What the new tone changes
Dent’s presence seems to shift the balance as well, because she does not pull focus from the cooking and instead appears to build a conspiratorial rapport with contestants. That combination is the main business of this reset: the judges are not there to imitate Torode and Wallace, but to make the format feel less tired than it had under a pair who had judged for nigh on 20 years.
The cleanest read is that MasterChef has used season 22 to trade familiarity for energy, and it looks like the right call. A show that had gone stale needed a new pair with enough authority to judge the food and enough ease to make the room feel lighter, and Haugh and Dent seem built for that job.
