MasterChef winner Phil Vickery says cooking scared him more than rugby.
Celebrity MasterChef winner Phil Vickery said that cooking on the show was scarier than anything he faced on the rugby pitch.
The 19 stone,(there are 14 pounds to a stone, so, he is 266 pounds) 6ft 3in, former England rugby captain, who won the title of Celebrity Masterchef said the show’s judges Gregg Wallace and John Torode reduced him to a trembling, nervous wreck.
“Being in the MasterChef kitchen was alien to me and bloody stressful,” said Phil, 35, who was nicknamed the Raging Bull during his playing days. “It was scarier than being on a rugby pitch."
“The most terrifying exper- ience was opening those kitchen doors on the first day and seeing the serious, po-faces of John and Gregg. It was terrifying."
“They showed no emotion and told us we had just 10 minutes to get started with a random recipe. The nerves got to me and I was shaking. John had to tell me to calm down and breathe.”
How did he win? It was with a three-course menu of scallops with black pudding, crispy Parma ham and apple puree, a main of fillet of lamb with baby carrots, asparagus wrapped in mint and Parma ham and fondant potatoes, and a dessert of orange and chocolate bread and butter pudding with clotted cream.
“The pressure in a kitchen is the same as in a rugby game,” said Phil. “It’s like the fog of war. There might be chaos all around you, but you’ve got to stay focused. There’s an incredible adrenaline rush and you get into a zone.”
On winning the 2011 celebrity MasterChef title, Vickery said: "I'm absolutely gobsmacked, I can't believe it. I dreamed of winning MasterChef but literally it was just a dream."
Phil is our kind of guy, saying his favorite dish is still roast beef, veg and loads of gravy followed by a good old- fashioned trifle.
Sounds good to us...
