Joe Pasquale cut his hand and was left bleeding minutes into the first heat of Celebrity MasterChef. The injury came during the opening episode of the One series, turning a signature-dish task into an early safety concern for the actor and author.
Grace Dent spots two plasters
Grace Dent noticed Pasquale already had two plasters on his fingers, then told him: "You've got two injuries already!" He replied to the judges, "Don't worry, I'll be in plaster by the end of the week."
The first heat of the 21st series paired Pasquale with Jason Mohammad, Jay McGuinness, Emily Campbell and Shakira Khan. Four stars go forward each week, with the competition split across three celebrity heats before the semi-finals in the fourth week and Finals Week in the fifth week.
Frankenstein's pie and blood
Giorgio Locatelli suggested the chaos on Pasquale's chopping board may have been a factor in the injury. Pasquale answered: "It's called Frankenstein's pie. You can't do it without blood."
When his thumb was shown bleeding from a fresh cut, he called out: "Can I have another plaster, please?" He then joked that the dish had become a "Sweeney Todd pie", a line that landed because the judges were watching the injury while he kept cooking.
Next heat on One
The next instalment will feature Emily Steel, Donna Preston, Eric Underwood, Nitin Ganatra and Tom Simons. That keeps the pressure on the opening rounds: one cut, one extra plaster, and the sort of visible mishap that can define how a series starts before the field narrows to the four who move on each week.
Pasquale's injury is the sharper story here because it happened in the first heat, not late in the run. For viewers, the immediate question is whether the cut slowed him down enough to affect the dish; the series has already put that problem on screen, and the following heat will decide whether anyone else leaves the kitchen with the same kind of red mark.
