CELEBRATE EVERY DAY

The restaurant critic and MasterChef presenter Grace Dent on fame, turning 51 and her newfound love of money

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As the new face of MasterChef, the restaurant critic Grace Dent is discovering the amusing side to fame.

“People keep approaching me and clutching my arm and saying that they’re so happy about it,” says the 51-year-old, who was brought in to the BBC show to replace Gregg Wallace.

“It’s a life-changing thing. You can be a little bit well known in London, but with the MasterChef audience...you’ve got no privacy ever again. You could be eating a scone in a garden centre cafe and literally feel the staff running to the bathroom to change the toilet roll because they’re so terrified.”

While eating and critiquing fine dining is now her bread and butter, her own relationship with food has changed hugely in recent years.

Grace tells Ateh Jewel on the Second Act podcast that realising she was comfort eating slices of Victoria sponge with her mother before she died made her reevaluate her life.