Cooking With the Stars contestant admits he was 'banned' from sitting next to co-star

Daily Mirror

4 days ago

Jordan North and Hugh Dennis were treated like "naughty school boys" while filming Cooking With The Stars
Jordan North has revealed he received a telling-off from the production crew whilst filming Cooking With The Stars.
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The radio host's kitchen abilities were tested on the ITV programme, where he competed against stars including Outnumbered's Hugh Dennis.
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However, whilst they attempted to remain competitive for the cameras, the atmosphere was completely different away from the spotlight, with the duo being forced to sit apart and handled like "naughty school boys".
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"We got told off, didn't we?" Hugh confessed on The One Show, when questioned about his "bromance" with Jordan.
"Yeah we got separated like we were naughty schoolboys by the floor manager, to the point where we weren't allowed to sit next to each other during filming," Jordan revealed, reports Wales Online.
Hugh joked: "We were giggling - it was a bit like being at school!"
Jordan continued: "While the other two celebrities are cooking, you're all sat on the side and you're not really meant to be talking, but I'd never met Hugh before, and obviously I'd watched him on Mock The Week and Outnumbered, so I just ended up fangirling.
"There's cutaways of me just smiling at him, I followed him around during lunch breaks and stuff, sitting next to him."
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The pair feature in the reality competition alongside stars such as Love Island's Ekin-Su Culculoglu and EastEnders ' Natalie Cassidy.
Presented by Emma Willis and Tom Allen, Cooking With The Stars features eight celebrities matched with professional chefs who serve as their guides.
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However, the professionals aren't permitted to participate in most of the tasks as the famous faces battle it out to create different meals.
Throughout the preparation phase, they can strike a gong to let their guide jump in and assist for two minutes.
Following each segment, the expert chefs serve as assessors to score the stars' creations, with the lowest two facing elimination in a cook-off culminating in a blind tasting challenge.
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Confessing his approach after being matched with Rosemary Shrager, Jordan later disclosed on The One Show that he plans to rely on "eye contact" to secure his place in the finale.
He said: "You can see your chef from your cooking station, but you're not allowed to talk to them as technically that's cheating.
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"But it's all about eye contact, so if you look at your chef and they go like that [pulls a funny face], you know something's not right, but if they go [smiles] it means you're doing something right.
"I had Rosemary Shrager, Sergeant Major Shrager, who is not afraid to tell you off."
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"She'd give you a stare and sometimes she'd shout, 'No, you nana!'" he chuckled.
He continued: "I was a bit of a flapper but Hugh was quite calm, the most middle-class dad in the kitchen, watching him was quite amazing. He took about 20 minutes cutting up butternut squash at one point."
When Hugh questioned, "Why were you watching me?" presenter Roman Kemp chuckled at the duo: "It's a strange bromance!"
Cooking With The Stars is available to watch on ITVX. The One Show airs weekdays from 7pm on BBC One and iPlayer.