Episode 4

It’s the second week of heats, and the five new celebrities up for the culinary challenge are Gladiator 'Dynamite' Emily Steel, actor Nitin Ganatra, YouTuber and comedian Tom Simons aka TommyInnit, actor, comedian and writer Donna Preston and retired Royal Ballet dancer and presenter Eric Underwood.

The first task for the five hopefuls is the signature dish round. It’s the celebrities calling card to the judges as they have 90 minutes to prepare a dish that tells Grace and Giorgio who they are as a cook. Who will stand out from the off, and who will demonstrate they are going to need to learn fast?

Next, it’s time for their taste buds to be tested with some tantalising treats as the celebrities take on a palate test like no other. They each need to identify cubes of either meat, fish, veg or fruit by touch and taste alone, as they will all be blindfolded throughout. Get the answer wrong and they will be eliminated from the challenge and lose their chance to win a significant advantage in the next round. Everyone is hoping to out-taste their opponents, but whether their taste buds are up to it remains to be seen.

Then, it’s the final test of their culinary abilities in a brand new challenge for this year's competition – the MasterChef cook-along. Giorgio will don his chef whites and cook one of his own signature dishes – pappardelle with pea puree and a butter sauce. All the celebrities have to do is follow and keep up with him. The winner of the challenge will be the celebrity whose dish looks and tastes the closest to Giorgio’s.

The celebrities work furiously, all keen to prove themselves to the judges because at stake is the MasterChef Pin, affording the winner a ten-minute advantage in the next round.

All five will live to fight another day, but performance in every challenge counts, as there’s only space for the best four in the quarter-finals.