John Torode is an Australian and British celebrity chef and television presenter, born on 23 July 1965 in Melbourne, Australia, best known as a judge on the BBC’s MasterChef from the show’s relaunch in 2005 until 2025. As of October 2026, aged 61, he no longer judges MasterChef, after the BBC decided in July 2025 not to renew his contract following an independent investigation that upheld an allegation of racist language against him, an allegation he has consistently denied, saying he has no recollection of the incident. He remains a familiar television cook through his ITV show with his wife, the actress Lisa Faulkner, and his career as a whole spans more than three decades, from Melbourne kitchens to some of London’s best-known restaurants.
What makes his story compelling is how completely it divides into two acts, because for twenty years he was one of the most trusted faces in British food television, and then, within a single summer, that chapter ended in controversy. Before MasterChef he had already built a serious reputation as a chef, working in the Conran Group’s restaurants and running his own London establishments, and he brought genuine professional authority to a judging role that could easily have been played for laughs. His cookbooks, his restaurants and his long television career all deserve to be understood on their own terms, as does the difficult ending of his MasterChef years, which he has contested from the start. This profile tells the full story, fairly and in full.
Who Is John Torode?
Torode is an Australian and British celebrity chef, broadcaster and restaurateur whose career has run from the 1990s to the present day, and who became a household name in Britain through two decades on MasterChef. He was born John Douglas Torode on 23 July 1965 in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, as the youngest of three boys, and he has described a childhood shaped by early loss, since his mother died when he was four and he spent the years between four and ten living with his grandmother in Maitland, New South Wales, where she taught him to cook. That early experience, learning to cook at a grandmother’s stove, stayed with him, and he has often said that roast chicken remains one of his favourite dishes precisely because of its connection to his childhood. It is a very human origin for a chef who would go on to run London restaurants.
His professional standing was formally recognised when he was appointed MBE in the 2022 Birthday Honours for services to food and charity, an honour that reflected both his television career and his work beyond it. He is a former owner of the London restaurants Luxe and Smiths of Smithfield, the author of numerous cookbooks, and a television presenter whose credits include This Morning, Junior MasterChef and the ITV weekend show he presents with his wife. He has four children, and he has been married to the actress Lisa Faulkner since October 2019. As of October 2026 he is 61 years old, and his public image is now a complicated one, combining genuine culinary achievement with a contested and painful exit from the show that made him famous.
From Australia to London: His Early Kitchen Years
Torode’s route into professional cooking began in Melbourne, where his early career started at the Le Coq Au Vin restaurant in Aspendale before an apprenticeship at establishments in Beaumaris, both in the Melbourne area. He has said that the food of his childhood was fairly normal, with crumbed lamb cutlets among his favourite meals, and that his grandmother’s teaching gave him both skills and a love of cooking that formal training then refined. Those Melbourne years were the foundation of his technique, but like many ambitious young chefs of his generation, he wanted to test himself in London, then one of the great centres of world cooking, and in the 1990s he moved to the United Kingdom. The move changed his life, because it brought him into the orbit of the Conran Group and the chefs and presenters who would shape his career.
In London he worked at the Conran Group’s restaurants, including Le Pont de la Tour and Quaglino’s, prestigious establishments where he learned the discipline of high-end service and where he first met Gregg Wallace, the greengrocer who would later become his MasterChef co-presenter. The Conran years gave him both credibility and connections, and they also introduced him to television, since he began appearing as a chef on ITV’s This Morning, where he worked from 1996 to 2000. This Morning made him a familiar face to daytime audiences and proved he could cook and talk at the same time, a rarer skill than it sounds, and it set him up for the opportunity that would define his career. By the time MasterChef came calling, he was already an experienced chef, restaurateur and broadcaster, not simply a television newcomer.
MasterChef: Becoming a Household Name
Torode became a household name in 2005, when he began presenting the revamped MasterChef on BBC One alongside Gregg Wallace, a partnership that would last for twenty years and turn the show into one of the BBC’s most successful formats. The revived MasterChef asked amateur cooks to produce restaurant-quality food under intense time pressure, and Torode’s role was to judge with the authority of a working chef, praising genuine skill and exposing bluff with a directness that audiences came to love. His partnership with Wallace, the enthusiastic greengrocer to his exacting professional, became one of British television’s most recognisable double acts, and the show spawned spin-offs including Celebrity MasterChef and Junior MasterChef, both of which Torode also worked on. For two decades, he was the face of serious cooking on British television.
The scale of that achievement is easy to underestimate, because MasterChef ran year after year, launching the careers of winning cooks and becoming a fixture of the BBC schedule, and Torode’s presence gave it continuity and credibility. He judged thousands of dishes, mentored nervous amateurs, and became known for his insistence on basics done well, from properly cooked meat to sauces made with care rather than shortcuts. His catchphrases and critiques entered everyday language among food fans, and his reputation as a fair but demanding judge made the show’s verdicts feel meaningful rather than arbitrary. When his MasterChef years ended in 2025, it was therefore not just the departure of a presenter but the end of a twenty-year institution, and the reaction from viewers reflected how deeply he had become part of the programme.
Restaurants and Cookbooks
Away from television, Torode built a genuine career as a restaurateur, most notably as the former owner of the London restaurants Luxe and Smiths of Smithfield, two establishments that reflected his approach to food. Smiths of Smithfield, in particular, became well known among London diners, while Luxe showed his ambition to run a modern, stylish restaurant in the capital, and both ventures demonstrated that his television fame rested on real experience of running kitchens and businesses. Running restaurants is a notoriously difficult trade, with thin margins and intense pressure, and Torode’s willingness to put his own money and reputation into bricks-and-mortar establishments set him apart from presenters whose cooking never left the studio. His restaurant years are an essential part of his story, because they explain why his MasterChef judgements carried weight.
His cookbooks form the other half of his professional output, and they show a cook whose interests range far beyond the MasterChef kitchen. His titles include Sydney to Seoul, a celebration of the food of his travels, My Kind of Food, a collection of his everyday cooking, and John and Lisa’s Kitchen, written with his wife Lisa Faulkner and built around the relaxed, family cooking they present together on television. These books are practical rather than showy, aimed at home cooks who want reliable recipes rather than restaurant theatre, and they have sold steadily on the strength of his name and his clear, encouraging style. Together, the restaurants and the books paint a picture of a chef who genuinely loves feeding people, whether in a London dining room, on a television set or through the pages of a cookbook.
TV Beyond MasterChef
Although MasterChef dominated his career, Torode’s television work has always been broader than a single show, and his other credits show a presenter comfortable across daytime, primetime and weekend formats. His earliest regular television job was on ITV’s This Morning, where he cooked as a resident chef from 1996 to 2000, learning to perform under the unforgiving conditions of live daytime television. He went on to work on Junior MasterChef, helping to judge young cooks with a gentler touch than the adult show required, and he became a central figure in Celebrity MasterChef, where his critiques of famous contestants, delivered with humour and honesty, made the spin-off a hit in its own right. These roles showed different sides of him, from the encouraging mentor to the stern professional, and they kept him on screen even when MasterChef itself was between series.
His most personal television project has been the weekend show he presents with his wife, John and Lisa’s Weekend Kitchen on ITV, in which the couple cook together in a relaxed, conversational style that contrasts sharply with the tension of MasterChef. The show, which they have filmed in blocks of around ten episodes at a time, plays on their genuine chemistry as a married couple who enjoy cooking together, and it has become a weekend fixture for many viewers. Lisa Faulkner, who won Celebrity MasterChef in 2010, is herself an accomplished cook as well as an actress, and the show works because neither partner is playing a role. For audiences who knew Torode only as the demanding MasterChef judge, the weekend show revealed a warmer, funnier man, and it remains his most important television home after MasterChef.
Personal Life and Family
Torode’s personal life has had its share of change, and he has spoken about it with the same directness he brings to his cooking. He was previously married to Jessica Thomas, whom he married in 2000 and divorced in 2014, and he has four children, two from his marriage to Jessica and two from another relationship, a blended family that he has largely kept out of the spotlight. His childhood, marked by his mother’s death when he was four and his years living with his grandmother in Maitland, gave him a strong sense of family, and he has often said that cooking is, for him, an act of care rather than simply a profession. That belief runs through his books and his weekend television show, where food is presented as something that brings people together.
His marriage to Lisa Faulkner is the best-known part of his private life, and their story began on Celebrity MasterChef in 2010, when Faulkner was a contestant and Torode was a judge, and she went on to win the series. They became friends first, began dating publicly in 2012, and Torode proposed on Christmas Day 2018 during a holiday in Goa, after writing her a letter to ask her out because, as he later admitted, he was too nervous to risk a face-to-face rejection. They married on 24 October 2019 at Aynhoe Park, a seventeenth-century country house in Oxfordshire, in a ceremony attended by family and famous friends, and they have since built a shared professional life around cooking together. Faulkner, who was previously married to the actor Chris Coghill and has an adopted daughter, has spoken warmly about their partnership, describing Torode as kind, funny and easy to live with, and their marriage remains a central part of his public image.
What Is John Torode Doing Now in 2026?
As of October 2026, Torode is no longer a MasterChef judge, following the BBC’s decision in July 2025 not to renew his contract after an independent investigation by the law firm Lewis Silkin upheld an allegation that he had used an extremely offensive racist term in the workplace. The BBC confirmed the upheld finding in a public statement, as reported by The Caterer, while Torode himself has consistently denied the allegation, saying he has no recollection of the incident and does not believe it happened, and adding that he would never wish to cause anyone offence. The investigation had originally been commissioned to examine allegations against his co-presenter Gregg Wallace, who was also dismissed in July 2025 after a large number of complaints against him were upheld, and the two departures together marked one of the biggest crises in the BBC’s entertainment history. Torode’s final pre-recorded episodes continued to air after his dismissal, with reports noting that his last episode aired in December 2025.
Since leaving MasterChef, Torode has been replaced on Celebrity MasterChef by the Michelin-starred chef Giorgio Locatelli, who was announced as his successor in 2026 and who now judges alongside the restaurant critic Grace Dent, who had already replaced Wallace. Torode himself has kept a lower television profile, although he continues his weekend cooking show with his wife Lisa Faulkner on ITV, the relaxed format that has always suited him best, and he remains active in food events and publishing. As of October 2026, no return to MasterChef has been announced, and his public statements since the dismissal have focused on his denial of the allegation and his sadness at leaving a show he worked on since its relaunch in 2005. His situation remains a sensitive one, and any fair account must hold both facts together: the BBC upheld the allegation, and Torode denies it.
Conclusion
John Torode’s career is one of the most substantial in British food television, because it rests on genuine achievement as a chef, restaurateur and author as well as on twenty years of judging MasterChef. He came from a difficult Melbourne childhood, learned to cook at his grandmother’s stove, worked his way through London’s top restaurants, and became the authoritative voice of the country’s most popular cooking competition, all while building restaurants, writing books and presenting a much-loved weekend show with his wife. His MBE in 2022 recognised that contribution to food and charity, and for most of his career he was regarded as one of the safest, most respected pairs of hands in British television. That record deserves to be remembered in full, whatever view readers take of his final year on MasterChef.
The ending of his MasterChef years will inevitably shape how his career is remembered, and it is right that it should be reported fairly, with both the BBC’s upheld finding and his consistent denial given their proper weight. But a career that spans more than three decades, from Melbourne apprenticeships to London restaurants, from This Morning to MasterChef and the weekend kitchen he shares with Lisa Faulkner, cannot honestly be reduced to a single summer. Whether he returns to a major television role, focuses on books and food events, or simply continues cooking with his wife on ITV, Torode has already left a mark on British food culture that will outlast the controversy, and his story remains one of talent, hard work and a painful, contested farewell.
How old is John Torode?
John Torode was born on 23 July 1965 in Melbourne, Australia, which makes him 61 years old as of October 2026, having celebrated his sixty-first birthday in July 2026. His age is a matter of public record, listed in his biography alongside his career as a chef and television presenter, and it places him in a generation of British television chefs who came to fame in the 1990s and 2000s. He was in his early thirties when he became a regular on This Morning in 1996, forty when he began judging the revived MasterChef in 2005, and sixty when his MasterChef career ended in 2025, which means audiences have watched him age from a young restaurant chef into one of the elder statesmen of British food television.
His age also helps explain the shape of his career, since he spent his twenties learning his trade in Melbourne and London, his thirties and forties building restaurants and a television profile, and his fifties and sixties as an established judge, author and weekend presenter. He was appointed MBE in 2022, when he was 56, and he married Lisa Faulkner in 2019, when he was 54, both milestones that came relatively late in a career built steadily rather than overnight. At 61, with a contested departure from MasterChef behind him and a long record of achievement in front of him, his age is less a limitation than a measure of how much ground he has covered.
Is he still on MasterChef?
No, John Torode is no longer on MasterChef as of October 2026, after the BBC decided in July 2025 not to renew his contract following an independent investigation that upheld an allegation of racist language against him. The investigation, led by the law firm Lewis Silkin, had originally been commissioned to look into allegations against his co-presenter Gregg Wallace, but it also examined the allegation against Torode, and the BBC confirmed that the finding against him had been substantiated. Torode has consistently denied the allegation, saying he has no recollection of the incident and does not believe it happened, and he has said he was saddened to leave a show he had worked on since its relaunch in 2005. His pre-recorded episodes continued to air after the announcement, with reports noting that his final episode aired in December 2025.
His replacement on Celebrity MasterChef is the Michelin-starred chef Giorgio Locatelli, who was announced as the new judge in 2026 and now sits alongside the restaurant critic Grace Dent, who had already replaced Wallace on the show. The main MasterChef series has therefore moved on with a new judging line-up, and no return for Torode has been announced. For viewers who watched him judge for twenty years, his absence is a major change, but the show’s producers have made clear that the decision was final, and Torode himself has focused since then on his ITV weekend show with his wife and on other food work. The honest answer, then, is that his MasterChef career, which ran from 2005 to 2025, is over.
What restaurants does he own?
Torode is best known as the former owner of two London restaurants, Luxe and Smiths of Smithfield, and as of October 2026 he is not publicly reported as the owner of a current flagship London restaurant. Smiths of Smithfield, in particular, became a well-known name among London diners during his time as its owner, while Luxe showed his ambition to run a modern, stylish establishment in the capital, and both ventures were important parts of his professional identity beyond television. Running restaurants is a demanding business, and his experience as an owner, not just a television judge, is one of the reasons his MasterChef opinions carried authority with contestants and audiences alike.
It is important to be precise here, because restaurant ownership changes over time and older profiles can quickly become out of date, so the accurate statement is that he formerly owned Luxe and Smiths of Smithfield rather than that he currently owns them. As of October 2026, his most visible food work is his ITV weekend cooking show with his wife Lisa Faulkner, along with his cookbooks and appearances at food events, rather than a single restaurant bearing his name. Readers looking for a current Torode restaurant should therefore check recent listings rather than relying on older articles, since the restaurant side of his career, like his television career, has changed significantly in recent years.
Who is his wife?
Torode’s wife is Lisa Faulkner, an actress and accomplished cook who won Celebrity MasterChef in 2010, when Torode was one of the judges, and whom he married on 24 October 2019 at Aynhoe Park in Oxfordshire. Faulkner is best known as an actress, with roles in series including Holby City and EastEnders, but she is also a serious cook in her own right, and her Celebrity MasterChef victory was the start of both a professional partnership and a personal relationship with Torode. They became friends after the show, began dating publicly in 2012, and Torode proposed on Christmas Day 2018 during a holiday in Goa, after first writing her a letter to ask her out because he was too nervous to risk being turned down face to face.
Together they present the ITV show John and Lisa’s Weekend Kitchen, in which they cook together in a relaxed, chatty style, and they have also written cookbooks together, including John and Lisa’s Kitchen, built around the family food they enjoy at home. Faulkner was previously married to the actor Chris Coghill and has an adopted daughter, while Torode has four children from previous relationships, and together they form a blended family that both have spoken about warmly. Their marriage, now in its seventh year as of October 2026, is one of the most popular partnerships in British food television, and their weekend show remains Torode’s most important television home since leaving MasterChef.
