John Torode found out he had been fired through a BBC News alert. Since July 2025, he has spoken about the racist language allegation, therapy, grief, and choosing silence over a public war. Here is his full record.
John Torode learned he had been sacked from MasterChef the same way many viewers did: a BBC News alert. No phone call from the corporation. No conversation with Banijay UK, the production company behind the show. After 21 years on one of Britain’s most-watched cooking programmes, it ended on his phone screen.
That detail, which he revealed in a statement on July 15, 2025, sat at the core of everything that followed. Not just his denial of the allegation itself, but his anger at how the whole thing was handled.
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What Did John Torode Say About the Racist Language Allegation?
Torode spoke before the BBC named him. On July 14, 2025, the day the Lewis Silkin law firm published its investigation findings into Gregg Wallace’s conduct, Torode posted on Instagram and identified himself as one of two other individuals against whom a complaint had been substantiated.
He wrote:
“For the sake of transparency, I confirm that I am the individual who is alleged to have used racial language on one occasion. I have absolutely no recollection of any of this, and I do not believe that it happened.”
He confirmed he had apologised to the person involved regardless, and added:
“I want to be clear that I’ve always had the view that any racial language is wholly unacceptable in any environment. I’m shocked and saddened by the allegation as I would never wish to cause anyone any offence.”
The allegation, reported by GB News, The Hollywood Reporter, and Deadline, centred on Torode using the N-word while singing along to Kanye West’s “Gold Digger” at after-show drinks. Banijay UK confirmed in its public statement that the incident occurred in 2018. The BBC described the language as “an extremely offensive racist term being used in the workplace.”
Lewis Silkin upheld the complaint as substantiated. The incident was a single, one-off occurrence in a private social setting, separate in scale and nature from the 45 allegations upheld against Wallace.
What Did John Torode Say When the BBC Sacked Him?
The following day, July 15, 2025, the BBC confirmed his MasterChef contract would not be renewed. Torode had not been told directly by anyone at the BBC or Banijay before the news went public.
His second statement said:
“Although I haven’t heard from anyone at the BBC or Banijay, I am seeing and reading that I’ve been ‘sacked’ from MasterChef and I repeat that I have no recollection of what I’m accused of. The enquiry could not even state the date or year of when I am meant to have said something wrong.”
He added that he had hoped to have “some say in my exit from a show I’ve worked on since its relaunch in 2005, but events in the last few days seem to have prevented that.”
He signed off with: “Personally, I have loved every minute working on MasterChef, but it’s time to pass the cutlery to someone else.”
The BBC’s position, stated by Director General Tim Davie: “We will not tolerate racist language of any kind. We’ve drawn a line in the sand.”
Banijay UK confirmed: “Whilst we note that John says he does not recall the incident, Lewis Silkin have upheld the very serious complaint. Banijay UK and the BBC are agreed that we will not renew his contract on MasterChef.”
ITV, which airs his weekend cooking show with wife Lisa Faulkner, held internal discussions and chose to keep John and Lisa’s Weekend Kitchen on air. ITV’s director of media and entertainment Kevin Lygo said at the Edinburgh TV Festival in August 2025: “We felt it was a bit much for us to jump on the bandwagon and just deny these shows to go out.”
“I’m Not Fixing What I Didn’t Break”
Four months passed before Torode addressed his exit again publicly. In November 2025, the already-filmed Celebrity MasterChef series with Grace Dent aired on BBC One. Viewers were surprised to see him still presenting. He posted on Instagram the same week:
“The best decision I ever made? To be quiet and move on. I have nothing to prove. I’m not here to convince anyone to love me or that I’m a great person. I’m not fixing what I didn’t break, and I’m not fighting for anyone to see my worth. Whatever you do is on you. As for me? I’m moving forward.”
The post went up hours after BBC Director General Tim Davie stepped down from the corporation amid a separate wave of institutional pressure.
John Torode on Therapy: “A Brutal Life Change”
In December 2025, writing in his Substack newsletter A View From The Fridge, Torode gave the fullest and most personal account of what losing MasterChef had done to him.
He described his BBC exit as “a very unexpected and brutal life change” and wrote:
“Life has changed forever for me and for those close to me. There is no sympathy searching here, just honesty.”
He confirmed he had been in therapy since leaving the show:
“Therapy over the past few months has entitled me to no longer ‘be brave’ but instead be real.”
On the grief he had been carrying, he wrote:
“Fear is the instinct that keeps us alive, but should grief and fear meet each other, I wonder how much damage it can do when we decide to shut it away, shut it down and not let it flow as it should.”
He described a solo work trip to Qatar, staying at a desert camp called The Outpost Al Barari. Away from Lisa Faulkner, he used the time alone to work through what had happened:
“Being away from Lisa has meant facing my grief alone and it has been cathartic but at times really tough. This week I can proudly say that I have allowed the true hurt and sadness to flow through me without resistance.”
The Grace Dent Tribute and the Word “Cult”
In January 2026, Torode used his newsletter to pay tribute to Grace Dent, confirmed alongside Anna Haugh as MasterChef’s new presenting duo in September 2025. The tribute came with a pointed word.
He called Dent “a strong extraordinary woman” who was:
“Graceful and never scared of doing the right thing or worried that the cult might too ostracise her. It was a privilege to stand by her side. Her support unfailing.”
The word “cult” was widely read as a direct reference to those who had publicly condemned him. Dent had previously backed Torode, calling him “one of the kindest, most concerned, clever, thoughtful men that I know.” He also described Lisa Faulkner as “my rock, my best friend, my love, my wife, a Wonder Woman.”
What John Torode Has Said Most Recently
His Substack post from mid-March 2026 carries a tone that is noticeably different from anything he wrote in the months immediately after the sacking.
He wrote:
“The joy of spring is amplified now that I have the time to notice, realising so much that I have been unaware of or simply took for granted all these years. But this year, as I have the time, the privilege, the wonder of walking slowly, breathing the fresh spring air, I feel more alive.”
He added: “Each time, each newsletter, I get a little braver.”
Since leaving the BBC, Torode has been writing weekly on his Substack, posting YouTube cooking videos, and appearing on ITV’s This Morning, where he recently cooked a pad thai live in seven minutes as part of a ยฃ5-meal segment. His ITV series with Lisa Faulkner ran through Christmas 2025, with its Series 10 finale airing on January 3, 2026. As of April 2026, ITV has not confirmed whether a new series has been commissioned. Sources told The Sun in late December 2025 that it was “not looking good” due to budget pressures, though no official cancellation has been announced.
Where Things Stand
The BBC and Banijay UK have not shifted from their July 2025 positions. Lewis Silkin’s finding stands. Torode’s denial stands with it. Neither side has moved.
What Torode chose to do with that is the more telling part of this story. No legal challenge. No long-form interview to dismantle the finding point by point. Just a weekly newsletter about food, spring, grief and kefir, written by a man rebuilding his sense of who he is without a show that carried his identity for two decades.
He said, plainly, that staying quiet was the best decision he ever made. Eight months of public statements, stretching from a hotel room in Qatar to a walking pace through North London in March, suggest he meant it.
