I’ve tried an artisan crisp that actually tasted of prawns, marie rose sauce, and lettuce - it was shit. “Prawn cocktail, but they’ve gotta be the same as the artificial banana, strong as fuck, and artificial - pure sugar and vinegar. One of my top three is the coffee - coffee, orange, and bald-minstrel” Best cheap crisps? That’s like saying does pineapple belong on a gammon joint? Of course it does, it’s a classic” You’re picking a Revel out the bag, what’s the worst case scenario? Noone can say they’ve never smashed a Hawaiian in as a kid. “I don’t care what anyone says, I think it’s right. I can’t wait for that to open in St Johns Centre” “I’ve got a bit of a gripe with Pizza Express, I got stung with that half-calorie pizza - it’s the same price but half the pizza! How embarrassing can I go with this answer? Restaurant Bar & Grill is my favourite actual good one, but apart from that Frankie & Benny’s because the calzone is ssssick. Actually scratch that - Taco.
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“McFlurry’s are shit hot as well - Daim bar McFlurry’s, my word” Favourite chain restaurant? Again, when they make it wrong and the garlic all gathers at the bottom” and then he makes that same facial-expression-noise-combo again.
#MASTERCHEF THE PROFESSIONALS SERIES 9 MAC#
“Banana milkshake, crispy chicken garlic-mayo wrap - because it seems healthier than a Big Mac - and then on the side mozzarella dippers and three chicken selects. Onto the quickfire round: Go-to order from McDonalds? McDonalds milkshakes when they do them wrong and put too much syrup in them, and I’ve always said that if someone could make Pringles taste like artificial bananas:” he, er, makes a noise and a facial expression at this point that can’t be translated into words.
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![masterchef the professionals series 9 masterchef the professionals series 9](https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/1200x675/p04hbw1n.jpg)
“My proper guilty pleasure is anything that’s flavoured with artificial banana - specifically off-brand ones, 50p or less per packet, they’re usually the best ones. I got asked for selfies twice - one time was in Angelicas!”. “Walking round Leeds for a space of three or four weeks I got stopped and recognised every day. For an hour program you’re on set for thirteen, fourteen hours, and it’s non-stop pressure”.ĭespite not doing as well as he’d wanted to, he got through to the quarter-finals and made his mark. “It was hard man, you know when you see people on there crying and using words like ‘emotional’ and ‘draining’ a lot, you think what are you on about, but then I were on it and it was intense. I applied while I was on the loo and thought nothing would come of it, so I was telling all my mates as a laugh, and then I got a phone interview and I was like ‘shit, this is serious’.” “He was thinking of applying for the amateurs and the applications for Professionals opened first, and he bet me I wouldn’t apply. What eventually made a name for him was an appearance on 2016’s Masterchef: The Professionals, which he applied for as a bet with his then-boss James from House of Koko. It’s been a mixture of being in the right place at the right time, but having the intuition and hustle to have put himself there. From lying about his age to get a job as a waiter at 15 (“I told my boss what I’d done on my sixteenth birthday, and we both swept it under the rug to keep each other from getting bollocked”) to getting work experience at the likes of L’enclume, Purnell’s, and with Damian Allsop while still at college (“There wasn’t a restaurant in England, France, or Spain’s Michelin guide that I didn’t email and beg for work that year”) to getting a job cooking under Anthony Flinn because he noticed somebody writing a resignation letter in the library.
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“But I couldn’t cook rice or anything like that…” So what was he doing, besides cooking rice badly? “Whatever I wanted really, I got away with it all the time because I was mates with the food tech teacher”Ī lot of his early career seems to be down to, well, blagging. “I remember being in school and doing food tech, and thinking I were shit hot at it” - the genesis of Josh’s career starts with as much modesty as you’d expect from a Chef currently working in one of the best kitchens in the City.