EVERY year fans of MasterChef can’t wait to watch the famous spin-off show, The Professionals.
The show sees pro-chefs battle it out in the kitchen, but only one can be named the top chef.
Who is taking part in the MasterChef: The Professionals?
Throughout the competition 32 professional chefs from across the UK will do battle to impress the MasterChef: The Professionals judges.
The contestants will be whittled down over the course of several heats.
The surviving chefs will then face a series of guest judges, before just one talented cook is crowned the winner
So far eight contestants have been announced, and they are as follows:
Heat one
- Cameron, 25, from the Scottish Highlands. He runs the kitchen of his family restaurant.
- Catrin, 31, who is originally from Sweden is head chef at a contract catering company in central London.
- Himanshu, 24, is a chef de partie and works for a private members’ club Annabel’s in Mayfair, London.
- Dara, 24, moved to New Forest from Limerick, Ireland, at 16 to fulfil his ambition of becoming a chef.
Heat two
- Cristina, 51, is originally from Recife, Brazil. She worked as an accountant for 20 years in her home country before she made the move to the UK to retrain as a chef. She now works for Camm & Hopper as a group head chef.
- Tommy, 27, who is from Bristol and Somerset is a head chef. He is classically trained and has spent the past 10 years working in award-winning restaurants across the UK.
- Charlie, 22, is a head chef. He started working in kitchens aged 14 and has worked in restaurants across Devon and Cornwall for the past eight years.
- Rosie, 34, runs her own cafe in Rye, East Sussex. After finishing university, she worked as a chalet chef in the French Alps.
Who are the judges of MasterChef: The Professionals?
Gregg Wallace
Gregg Wallace has been doing the MasterChef gig since 2005, and he’s also on the panel Celebrity MasterChef.
Away from the franchise he has presented BBC shows including Supermarket Secrets and Eat Well for Less?, as well as going behind the scenes of food production on Inside The Factory.
Aside from his TV projects, Gregg is also a writer and a farmer, and he used to own two restaurants in Bermondsey and Putney.
Marcus Wareing
Marcus Wareing started working in the food industry at the age of 11, packing potatoes and helping his dad with deliveries.
He has worked in cities such as New York City, Amsterdam and Gravetye Manor, in Sussex, and other luxurious locations.
He was famously very good friends with Gordon Ramsay, before the pair fell out.
Since then, he has become a celebrity chef in his own right, and owns a number of Michelin starred restaurants across London.
Monica Galetti
Experienced chef Monica Galetti began her training at the Central Institute of Technology, Wellington, in the early 1990s.
When she was finished with her studies, she landed her first proper cooking job at a nearby restaurant, Timothy’s.
Her cooking impressed the owner so much that she was sent to cooking competitions across the world, including Europe.
Monica has also featured on documentary Food And Drink in 2013 and the Great British Food Revival in 2012.
That same year, she released her own book, Monica’s Kitchen, which was released by Quadrille Publishing.
When does MasterChef: The Professionals start?
MasterChef: The Professionals airs three times a week on BBC One.
You can catch it at 9pm on Mondays and Wednesdays, and 8pm on Tuesdays.
Episodes can also be watched on the BBC iPlayer.