Worthing’s Kenny Tutt to appear as guest judge on BBC’s MasterChef

The bank manager-turned-restauranteur is set to appear on tomorrow night’s (March 3) episode of Masterchef as a guest judge.

After opening his debut restaurant, Pitch, in 2019, Kenny said he is now well placed to share some sage advice with the new contestants.

“It’s always exciting when it comes back on and it’s great they’ve been able to bring it back this year,” he said.

“In the early rounds they always get past winners and finalists to judge the contestants and give some constructive criticism.

“I don’t want to be too harsh, because I’ve been in their shoes, but it’s about giving little pointers on things like seasoning and helping them to become more refined chefs.”

He felt much more comfortable in front of the camera this time around, he added, with the nerves of his first TV appearances in 2018 a thing of the past.

Kenny opened Pitch despite having almost no restaurant experience, but he said he was determined to ‘earn his stripes’ through the hard labour junior chefs typically go through.

That means long hours of back-breaking work, peeling vegetables until 4am and preparing for the next day’s service.

“The experience of working in the restaurant has put me in good stead,” Kenny said.

“I’ve massively improved as a chef since opening Pitch, but it’s certainly been an eye-opener. We’ve served thousands of customers now and it’s been a real baptism of fire.”

To get through the pandemic and support his 32 employees, Kenny launched Tutt’s Truck in Ferring, a street food truck serving gourmet sandwiches.

Pitch, like many restaurants, has also started offering kits for customers to cook their favourite dishes at home.

Kenny will appear on episode two of the 17th series of Masterchef at 8pm tomorrow (March 3) on BBC One.

The cookery competition pits amateur chefs against one another, judged by chef John Torode and former greengrocer Gregg Wallace.