Celebrity MasterChef 2026 – Meet the Week Two Cooking Stars

Six new celebrities are ready to cook their hearts out on Celebrity MasterChef 2026, the hit BBC One cooking show now in its 21st series. The competitors come from music, sport, acting, comedy, and dance. Each one hopes to impress the judges and take home the famous MasterChef trophy. Week two promises plenty of drama, delicious food, and a few surprises along the way.

The show challenges its famous contestants to cook real meals under real pressure. There are five weeks of tough challenges ahead, and only one celebrity will win in the end. Acting skills and fame will not help anyone in the kitchen — only good cooking will. The competition pushes every contestant far outside their comfort zone.

One contestant says cooking is a lifelong dream. She loves making weekend feasts for friends, including dishes like salmon en croûte and beef wellington. She describes her style as experimental, saying she is great at throwing things together at the last minute. Her favourite dish — and her signature — is Toad in the Hole, which she calls 'like a big hug.' She grows her own vegetables and says she will never, ever eat shark.

A sports star is also joining the competition. He rates his cooking skills at eight out of ten and loves steak, chunky chips, and seafood paella. He grew up partly in Thailand, where his mum once made salsa from cockroaches — something he remembers with a laugh. He spent time working in Spain and fell in love with tapas dishes like patatas bravas, croquettes, and Manchego cheese. His dream meal ends with warm cookie dough and vanilla ice cream.

A ballet dancer is hoping to break the idea that dancers do not care about food. She lives on a farm with her husband and grows her own vegetables. They also raise cows, chickens, sheep, and bees for honey, and she is excited about the idea of farm-to-table cooking. She learned to cook by watching her mum and says the first meal she ever made for her family was fried chicken, collard greens, and mac and cheese. She is famous among her friends for her mac and cheese — and says she might even add lobster to impress the judges.

Another contestant is cooking in memory of his mother, who he says was the best cook in the world. He is a vegetarian and has recently changed his diet to eat more healthily after being told he is pre-diabetic. He was born in Kenya and grew up eating cassava, yam, and fresh mangoes. His mum and sister taught him to blend spices, and he is heavily inspired by Indian cooking. His favourite secret recipe is his mum's garlic pickle, which he says packs a huge punch of flavour.

The final contestant says this is his first time on a proper TV show and he is excited to give it a go. He learned to cook at age 17 from his parents, sometimes practising with them over video call from his flat in Brighton. He does not follow cookbooks and prefers family recipes instead. His go-to ingredients include garlic, peppers, and broccoli. For dessert, he plans to serve something fun and creative — cream eggs decorated with googly eyes.