Strictly’s Anton du Beke admits ‘I’ve never cooked’ ahead of Cooking with the Stars

Strictly judge Anton du Beke has told how he has “never” cooked and that the producers of ITV’s Cooking with the Stars originally didn’t believe him

IT might be a porkie pie, but Anton du Beke claims he had never made a meal in his life until Cooking with the Stars.

And when the show is over, the Strictly Come Dancing star has vowed: “I’m never cooking again.”

Anton, 55, who is mentored by chef Rosemary Shrager in the ITV cooking contest, said: “I don’t cook at all. I’ve never cooked anything in my entire life.

“That is difficult for the judges to comprehend and understand. When I said to producers, ‘I don’t cook’, they said, ‘That’s fine but what’s your signature dish?’

“I said, ‘I don’t cook, so I don’t have one’. The first time I cooked anything was the first morning of training with Rosemary.

“It was the first time I’d been in a kitchen and cooked something with a pan on a stove.” The ballroom expert, who has five-year-old twins, George and Henrietta, with wife Hannah, said working with Shrager had been “perfect”.

He said: “She’s hilarious, exactly the one I’d have wanted.”

Other competitors on the show include Olympian Dame Kelly Holmes, Chaser Anne Hegerty and DJ Woody Cook.

Anton added: “My wife does all the cooking, but it’s something I felt I’d like to do. During lockdown I had thoughts about wanting to learn to cook, but I didn’t, as I had no way of learning.”

Anton’s lack of experience is all the odder as he trained as a baker in his youth.

But he said: “They are both very different skills.”

*Cooking with the Stars, Tuesday, ITV, 8pm.

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