John Torode said he had “absolutely no recollection” of using racist language and did not believe the incident ever happened. He posted that statement to Instagram on 14 July 2025, hours after an independent investigation confirmed the allegation against him had been upheld. The BBC cancelled his MasterChef contract the following afternoon.
That is the direct answer. Everything that happened around it tells a much more unsettling story.
| Full name | John Douglas Torode |
| Born | 23 July 1965, Melbourne, Australia |
| MasterChef tenure | 2005 to 2025 (20 years) |
| Allegation | Extremely offensive racist term used at after-show drinks, 2018 |
| Outcome | Contract not renewed by BBC and Banijay UK, 15 July 2025 |
| Investigation firm | Lewis Silkin, commissioned by Banijay UK, December 2024 |
Table of Contents
Who Is John Torode?
John Douglas Torode was born on 23 July 1965 in Melbourne, Australia. His mother died when he was four years old. He and his brother Andrew were raised by their grandmother in Maitland, New South Wales, and it was she who first taught him to cook.
He left school at 16 for catering college, worked his way through Melbourne restaurants, and moved to the UK in 1991. His first London role was as a sous-chef at Le Pont de la Tour and Quaglino’s under Terence Conran. It was at Quaglino’s where he first crossed paths with Gregg Wallace, whose company supplied vegetables to the restaurant. He opened Smiths of Smithfield in 2000 and joined the relaunched MasterChef on BBC One in 2005, chosen for the role over food critic A.A. Gill. By 2011, the show had been sold to 25 countries. He received an MBE in June 2022 for services to food and charity, accepted from Prince William at Buckingham Palace. He has been married to actress Lisa Faulkner since October 2019.
The Investigation That Brought His Name Into It
In November 2024, Gregg Wallace stepped away from MasterChef while BBC News investigated allegations of inappropriate behaviour against him. Banijay UK, which produces the show, commissioned law firm Lewis Silkin to conduct a formal independent inquiry the following month.
The investigation ran for seven months and interviewed 78 witnesses. It examined 83 allegations against Wallace, upholding 45 of them. The findings included inappropriate sexual language, bullying, culturally insensitive remarks, three incidents of being in a state of undress, and one of unwelcome physical contact. Wallace was sacked in early July 2025.
The same report examined 10 standalone allegations against other individuals connected to MasterChef productions. Two were substantiated. One involved swearing. The other involved John Torode.
The allegation in full: Torode used a racist slur, described by the BBC as “an extremely offensive racist term,” during after-show drinks in 2018. According to Torode’s own statement, the person he allegedly said it to did not believe it was intended maliciously, did not make a formal complaint at the time, and the matter only surfaced during the Wallace inquiry years later. Multiple credible outlets, including The Telegraph, identified the specific word as the N-word. Richard Osman, speaking on his podcast The Rest is Entertainment, described it as “probably the worst racial slur there is” and said investigators found evidence “they were happy with.”
Banijay’s formal statement specified the year as 2018. The investigation itself could not confirm the exact date.
What John Torode Said — His Exact Words
First Statement: Monday, 14 July 2025
The evening the Lewis Silkin report was published, Torode identified himself before the BBC named him. In full:
“For the sake of transparency, I confirm that I am the individual who is alleged to have used racial language on one occasion. The allegation is I did so sometime in 2018 or 2019, in a social situation, and that the person I was speaking with did not believe it was intended in a malicious way and I apologised immediately afterwards. I have absolutely no recollection of any of this, and I do not believe that it happened. However, I want to be clear that I’ve always had the view that any racial language is wholly unacceptable in any environment. I’m shocked and saddened by the allegation as I would never wish to cause anyone any offence.”
Second Statement: Tuesday, 15 July 2025
The BBC and Banijay UK announced his contract would not be renewed on the afternoon of 15 July 2025. Torode posted a second statement that evening:
“Although I haven’t heard from anyone at the BBC or Banijay, I am seeing and reading that I’ve been ‘sacked’ from MasterChef and I repeat that I have no recollection of what I’m accused of. The enquiry could not even state the date or year of when I am meant to have said something wrong. I’d hoped that I’d have some say in my exit from a show I’ve worked on since its relaunch in 2005, but events in the last few days seem to have prevented that. Personally I have loved every minute working on MasterChef, but it’s time to pass the cutlery to someone else. Life is everchanging and ever moving and sometimes personal happiness and fulfilment lay elsewhere.”
The BBC and Banijay’s Official Response
The BBC’s statement left no room for interpretation:
“John Torode has identified himself as having an upheld allegation of using racist language against him. This allegation, which involves an extremely offensive racist term being used in the workplace, was investigated and substantiated by the independent investigation led by Lewis Silkin. John Torode denies the allegation. He has stated he has no recollection of the alleged incident and does not believe that it happened. The BBC takes this upheld finding extremely seriously. We will not tolerate racist language of any kind. John Torode’s contract on MasterChef will not be renewed.”
BBC Director General Tim Davie, asked at a press briefing to name the specific word used, said: “I’m not going to give you the exact term because I think, frankly, it was a serious racist term, which does not get to be acceptable in any way, shape or form.” He described the situation as “a reset” for the corporation and confirmed he was “happy that the team were taking action.”
Banijay UK stated it “takes this matter incredibly seriously” and confirmed both it and the BBC were “agreed” on the decision not to renew.
What the Headlines Missed
Torode did not receive a phone call from the BBC before the announcement went out. His agent was contacted 11 minutes before the public statement was released, with no time to reach him. He found out he had lost his job through a BBC News alert.
He pointed directly to this in his second statement: “I’d hoped that I’d have some say in my exit from a show I’ve worked on since its relaunch in 2005.”
The Times reported that Banijay’s speed in reaching a decision was partly driven by Torode having enlisted lawyers to keep himself clear of the Wallace controversy. A BBC source told the paper: “In the end, it was easier for us to say that’s that.” A second source added: “Do you want to drag the show through months of ‘he said, she said’ or do you just want to move on?”
Reports in The Sun claimed the BBC and Banijay had suggested Torode resign and attribute his departure to mental health pressures. He refused. The BBC denied that account to the Daily Star, saying they never suggested he resign and never raised mental health. Both versions came from unnamed sources and neither has been independently verified.
Osman also disputed Torode’s account of discovering the sacking through the media, stating: “My understanding is that’s not true, the first thing he knew about it was when he was told it.” He gave no source for this claim.
On the same afternoon the sacking was announced, Banijay UK held its annual summer showcase at The Brewery in London. An insider told The Sun: “It was the most awkward party ever. The MasterChef situation was the gossip of the night.”
John Torode After the Sacking
Five months after his exit, Torode wrote about it in his Substack newsletter, A View From The Fridge. He described the departure as “a very unexpected and brutal life change” and confirmed he had been attending therapy.
He wrote:
“Therapy over the past few months has entitled me to no longer ‘be brave’ but instead be real. Fear is the instinct that keeps us alive, but should grief and fear meet each other I wonder how much damage it can do when we decide to shut it away, shut it down and not let it flow as it should. Life has changed for ever for me and for those close to me. There is no sympathy searching here, just honesty.”
A solo work trip to Qatar marked a turning point. He was more than 6,000 miles from home, away from Lisa Faulkner for the first time since the scandal broke, and wrote about it without filtering anything:
“Dinner consisted of sitting on top of a sand dune and watching the sunset whilst feasting on flat breads, hummus, eggplant and yoghurt. Being away from Lisa has meant facing my grief alone and it has been cathartic but at times really tough. This week I can proudly say that I have allowed the true hurt and sadness to flow through me without resistance.”
Faulkner said publicly: “MasterChef will not be the same without John. But he’s doing OK.”
Grace Dent, who filmed a Celebrity MasterChef series with Torode shortly before the controversy broke, told the Sunday Times: “I absolutely adore John Torode. He is one of the kindest, most concerned, clever, thoughtful men that I know.”
Sources told The Mirror in July 2025 that Torode was consulting an employment lawyer over a potential unfair dismissal claim against the BBC, citing the absence of a specific date in the investigation’s findings and the way his exit was handled. As of April 2026, no legal proceedings have been publicly confirmed or filed.
What Happened to MasterChef
The BBC aired the 2025 series from August 2025, filmed before any of the allegations came to light and featuring both Wallace and Torode. The corporation called the decision “not an easy” one but said it was right to honour the work of the amateur cooks who competed.
On 8 September 2025, the BBC confirmed Grace Dent and Anna Haugh as the new MasterChef presenters for the 2026 series. For Celebrity MasterChef, Michelin-starred Italian chef Giorgio Locatelli is reported to be joining Dent as co-host.
John and Lisa’s Weekend Kitchen on ITV, which Torode has co-hosted with Lisa Faulkner since 2019, faced uncertain renewal as of late December 2025. Sources told The Sun that budget pressures made the show’s future unclear. No confirmation either way has been reported since.
John Torode started learning to cook in his grandmother’s kitchen in New South Wales, after losing his mother at the age of four. He spent 20 years building something extraordinary on British television. He turned 60 on 23 July 2025, eight days after losing it.
The allegation against him comes from a single night in 2018, at a table no one formally complained about at the time, found during an investigation that was looking into someone else entirely. His denial has been consistent from the first Instagram post to the last newsletter entry. The BBC’s position has been equally consistent: the finding was upheld, the language was unacceptable, and that was enough.
What John Torode said on those two July evenings in 2025 was the same thing both times. He said he did not believe it happened. Whether that is the full truth remains, as it always was, between the people who were actually in the room.
Sources: ITV News, The Guardian, Deadline, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Associated Press, LBC, GB News, The Caterer, C21 Media, Scottish Daily Express, Hello! Magazine, The Times (via AOL/The Independent), Wikipedia.
