Former champion Stu Deeley explains the ‘power of MasterChef’
Stu Deeley, winner of MasterChef: The Professionals in 2019, admits entering the show was out of his “comfort zone”, but that the experience during and since “has delivered everything I hoped for and more”.
Stu saw off competition from Exose Grant Lopo-Ndinga, Yann Florio and Olivia Burt to win the final five years ago.
He now works as chef director at Smoke, at Solihull’s Hampton Manor.
The new series of MasterChef: The Professionals begins on BBC One on Tuesday, October 29.
“I won MasterChef: The Professionals in 2019. It feels like a lifetime ago now,” Stu told The Staff Canteen.
“We’ve had a lot happen since then. What a great show.
“MasterChef has delivered everything I hoped for and more, to be honest.
“From going down the street and being recognised, to my kid’s schoolteachers saying ‘I saw you on MasterChef’. It’s crazy, because for me, I’m a boy from Bearwood. I had no reason to be in the public eye.
“MasterChef wasn’t about that, it wasn’t about trying to become a someone, it was just about testing myself. What it’s given me it’s returned in so many ways.”
He added: “You’ve got to do MasterChef.
“Any chef out there that has self-doubt, if you’ve got a good mentor, a good mentor will always say to you to push yourself to the next level. That’s what you have to do.
“Sometimes you’re going to do things in life that’s outside your comfort zone. Like for me, being on a TV programme that airs to five million people, maybe more because it gets released worldwide.
“We’ve actually had a guest in the restaurant who came all the way from Australia. That’s the power of MasterChef.”
Someone who has not yet fully appreciated the scale of Stu’s achievement in winning the show is his young son Jack.
“Jack was around 18 months at the time, because filming is about six months behind the actual airing,” said Stu.
“Jack’s now seven and it’s unbelievable to sit there with him and watch it on the telly.
“At the time, I thought ‘what a moment this will be’. I sat down with him, we watched it and he just went ‘oh, nice’.”
Judges for the 17th series of MasterChef: The Professionals will again be Marcus Wareing, Monica Galetti and Gregg Wallace.
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