Tim Lovejoy and Simon Rimmer welcomed a bunch of new guests to Channel 4’s Sunday Brunch today, including actor Ben Miller, Gary Kemp, singer Joy Crookes, chef Mike Reid and Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen. However, it was guest Emma Willis who had the most to say as she talked about her new cooking programme and divulged details about Strictly judge Shirley Ballas’ cooking skills.
Describing her new cooking series Cooking with the Stars on ITV, The Voice presenter stated that the “celebrities are being judged on the quality of what they’re producing”.
“They’re very much feeling the competition pressure,” she continued, before explaining that they all want to be taught how to cook properly.
“They want to do well because, honestly, all of them were not very good at cooking.”
Simon noted that Strictly judge Shirley Ballas ends up being very tearful in the first episode of the new show as “the intensity of it is so much”.
Simon pointed out that when the judges complimented the dancer on her cooking, the moment “really got to her”.
The presenter also believed that Shirley and chef Joseph Denison Carey were “such a great pairing”.
“He was so great with her, so calm.
“Everytime i went up to her in the kitchen to try and have a chat, you could just see the focus,” Emma commented.
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Emma joked that she felt as if she was bugging Shirley as she was cooking, and the Strictly judge would often say to her: “I like you Emma but please go away because I need to concentrate.”
“She desperately wanted to do a great job, she wanted to be able to cook for her kids,” the host added.
The presenter also discussed working with her co-host on Cooking with the Stars, saying: “I’ve never done a cooking show before, it was really nice.
“I don’t know much about cooking, but Tom does so that was great.
“He kind of has the cooking side of it, but I had the celeb side of it so we balanced each other out quite well.”
Simon pointed out that Emma and her co-host “look like you are having a laugh all the time”.
Emma agreed, saying: “I never met Tom before the week we started filming but I knew that we were working together a little while before.
“We kind of tried to get together but it never happened.
“He’s amazing, I just wanted to spend all of my time with him,” Emma remarked.
She also revealed that they spent most of filming together and never parted even during breaks.
Sunday Brunch airs every Sunday at 9.30am on Channel 4.
Cooking with the Stars airs every Tuesday at 9pm on ITV.