As MasterChef returns for a new series, judge John Torode is priming his taste buds. The Aussie chef tells Jeananne Craig about the twists and turns in store

John Torode and Gregg Wallace have spent the past decade hosting MasterChef together – and they’re back for another series this month.

As always, viewers can look forward to “a couple of twists and turns” in series 11, which features 40 amateur cooks competing over 24 episodes.

The most notable “twist” is a reinvention test, which sees heat-stage hopefuls taking the main ingredient from their signature dish (known as the ‘calling card’ dish) and turning it into a brand new plate of food.

If they impress the judges, and get through another two-course challenge, they’ll make it into the quarter finals, and finally, at the end of the gruelling seven weeks, 2015’s champion will be crowned.

Torode, 49, who grew up in Maitland, in Australia’s New South Wales, says he still gets inspired by the home cooks who enter.

“This year, more than anything, we’ve seen such a diverse group of cooks with really different ideas, with food from all around the place – from people cooking street food to really elegant fine dining, to brilliant stuff from Austria and Germany, through to Japan, Italy, France, China, Malaysia, Russia.”

He also has MasterChef to thank for his romance with actress and cookery writer Lisa Faulkner, who he met when she won Celebrity MasterChef in 2010.

“She’s such an amazing cook. She’s so great and so generous, and she’s pretty good-looking as well. The old man did all right!” says Torode.

The TV judge would never critique his former contestants’ food.

“Can you imagine me going to somebody’s house, or to Lisa, and saying, ‘Well I think this would work, maybe if you did this...’ That would be the rudest thing in the whole world.”

Torode is also working on a new book, My Kind Of Food, due out later this year, “about the food I cook at home – clams and spaghetti, really good salad, curry, pies”.

And later this year, he’ll celebrate his 50th. The chef, who has four children from two previous relationships, insists he’s not bothered about the landmark birthday.

“Turning 40, I hated. Turning 50, I’m fine about. I am what I am. I don’t feel old, I feel great,” he says.

“I’m very, very happy, I’m very privileged to do things like MasterChef. I’m travelling the world, writing books. I’m doing all right.”