MasterChef’s John Torode receives an MBE for his services to food and charity from Prince William at Buckingham Palace
John Torode was among the high-profile names who received honours during an investiture ceremony at Buckingham Palace on Thursday.
The celebrity chef, 57, was made an MBE for his services to food and charity after a career which has seen him largely known for his role as a judge on MasterChef.
John has written several cookbooks and appeared on ITV’s This Morning in the late 1990s before taking over as a judge on the BBC cooking show in 2005 alongside Gregg Wallace.
John is also is a restaurateur and former owner of eatery, The Luxe. He has written a number of cookbooks, including some with fellow judge Gregg.
John looked suave as he dressed up for the occasion in a navy blue morning suit and tails.
Big honour: John Torode was among the high-profile names who received honours during an investiture ceremony at Buckingham Palace on Thursday
Good spirits: The celebrity chef, 57, was made an MBE for his services to food and charity after a career which has seen him largely known for his role as a judge on MasterChef
The chef beamed after picking up his award at the palace.
Outside of his hugely successful career, John is married to actress-turned-TV cook Lisa Faulkner, 50, and share five children between them: Lisa’s adopted daughter Billie, 16, and John’s grown-up sons Casper and Marselle, and teenagers, Jonah, 18, and Lulu, 16.
The pair recently celebrated their third wedding anniversary, after first meeting when he judged her food on BBC‘s Celebrity MasterChef.
Lisa took to Instagram to celebrate the milestone with a gushing tribute to her husband.
The actress also offered her 322K followers a look at the big day with a candid throwback snap of the couple as they enjoyed a kiss after exchanging vows.
She penned: ‘Happy anniversary my @johntorodecooks … 3 wonderful years married to you’.
‘What a beautiful wedding. Have sat and looked at our wedding video and the happiness in everyone’s faces. You bring me so much joy. I love you so very much. Thank you for being my husband’.
The TV judge rushed to the comments section and replied: ‘B****y love my wife’.
Achievement: John has written several cookbooks and appeared on ITV’s This Morning in the late 1990s before taking over as a judge on the BBC cooking show in 2005
Dapper dude: John looked suave as he dressed up for the occasion in a navy blue morning suit and tails
The couple wed at the swanky Aynhoe Park in Banbury in October 2019 with a whole host of famous faces on the guest list, including Amanda Holden and Tamzin Outhwaite.
Lisa was previously married to EastEnders actor Chris Choghill, 47, from 2005 to 2011 and with whom she shares daughter Billie, 16.
John split from wife Jessica in 2011, with whom he shares Jonah, 18, and Lulu, 16, and is also a father to two other older sons from a previous relationship.
In an with The Sunday Times earlier this year, John admitted there has been a ‘black mark’ about when the pair met.
The Australian explained how in his version of events, they’d met when Lisa was a contestant on Celebrity MasterChef back in 2010.
Happy news: His wife Lisa Faulkner, 50, took to Instagram to celebrate the milestone with a gushing tribute to her husband
Love: She penned: ‘How handsome he is!! What a huge achievement and how lovely that The Prince of Wales gave him his medal’
Proud: The chef beamed after picking up his award at the palace
Award: Lisa looked lovingly at John as they enojyed a meal after the main event
Yet unearthed footage from This Morning back in 1996 showed John being introduced as the new chef, while his now-wife was being interviewed on the sofa.
For London-born Lisa, their initial meet on the ITV daytime show had not escaped her memory, as she recalled complimenting one of his dishes and his brusque reply.
She regaled that she thought he was arrogant, but that soon changed when their soon-found friendship after MasterChef developed into something more.
Of how he’d been encouraged to ask the Brookside actress on a date, John divulged: ‘I’d separated from my wife [Jessica] which was awful, and I was reluctant to approach Lisa face to face as I didn’t fancy the prospect of her saying no, so I wrote her a letter.
‘If I’d got no response, it wouldn’t matter. Cowardly? S***, yeah. I’m as cowardly as they get.’
John explained that she’d agreed to a date and from there, everything fell into place, gushing that ‘we just really, really like each other.’
Private life: Outside of his hugely successful career, John is married to actress-turned-TV cook Lisa and they share five children between them
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