Scandal was the main dish on the menu in the MasterChef kitchen, when Gregg Wallace stepped away last year amid claims of misconduct - making way for Grace Dent to judge the 20th series in April, alongside John Torode . The 2025 series will also mark 35 years since MasterChef - holder of the Guinness World Record for the most successful cookery television format in the world - was launched on July 2 1990. But the series, now shown in 70 countries and watched by one billion people worldwide,