Last year, Tom Kerridge, 49, admitted he had drawn criticism from cooks over his low scores on BBC’s Great British Menu. However, the Michelin-starred chef has insisted he’s still not backing down after filming the 2023 series.
Explaining his tough verdicts on the show in an exclusive interview with Express.co.uk, Tom revealed if a contestant wants to achieve a 10 out of 10 score from him, “it has to be one of the best things I’ve ever eaten”.
He said: “I think the thing is that I’ve been cooking for over two years and in that, I’ve been able to travel the world and see all sorts of different things and eat some of the most incredible, amazing food globally.
“You know, for someone to score 10 out of 10, it has to be one of the best things I’ve ever eaten.
“I have eaten a lot of great food from some of the best chefs in the world, in their own restaurants all over the world.
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“So if you’re going to score high marks, you’re literally comparing yourself to those chefs, because that’s what I’m comparing it to. That’s what I want.”
Tom went on to insist that getting a seven or an eight out of 10 from him is a score to be proud of, due to his high standards.
He continued: “So a seven or an eight is a really, really good score.
“When you’re getting nines and 10s, that means I would travel the world to go and eat that dish.
“So I’m not anti-giving out those scores, but at the same point, it’s good for chefs to know as well, they’ve got to know that that is the benchmark of where they’re cooking, and where they’ve got to be.
“That’s what we’re aiming for and that’s what they should be able to do.”
It comes after Tom confessed he gets accused of being a “grumpy b*****d” by contestants.
“I got quite a lot of stick for being a grumpy b*****d, which is fine,” he previously told the Daily Mail’s Richard Eden in May 2022.
The chef added: “If you’re competing as a chef, you’re there to cook, to compete.
“The chefs eating other chefs’ food don’t want to go, ‘Oh, that’s only worth a five’; they give it an eight — they’re trying to be nice.”
Tom also said the judges were much more brutal when he was a contestant on the show himself 10 years ago.
The star recalled chef Daniel Clifford would spit contestants’ food out when he was a judge.
“And now we are in this world of being nice to everyone,” Tom argued.
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