A contestant from the latest series of MasterChef has been edited out of the programme, after telling its producers she did not want the show to be broadcast after sustained allegations made against presenters Gregg Wallace and John Torode.
Sarah Shafi, from Leeds, said she had made it clear to the show’s producers that airing it would send the wrong message about the treatment of women and the lack of challenge to powerful men behaving inappropriately.
The presenters feature almost throughout the series, which was filmed at the end of last year. Both have since been dropped from the programme.
Shafi said she initially rejected an offer by MasterChef’s producers Banijay to edit her out of her episode. The 57-year-old agreed to be removed once the BBC announced they had decided to broadcast the series from 6 August.
“I didn’t say edit me out,” she said. “I said: ‘Axe the show, don’t air the show. I’m asking you not to air the show.’ Prominent figures have been abusing their power. What message does that send out to women?
“For me, it’s about the enabling environment. It’s that complicity. Those individual powerful men do not [act] in isolation. There is an enabling environment, turning a blind eye … It’s about years of these institutions not being accountable.”
Wallace was dropped by the BBC after an independent report substantiated 45 allegations made against him, including claims of inappropriate sexual language and one incident of unwelcome physical contact. He has apologised “for any distress caused”, but said the report cleared him of “the most serious and sensational accusations”.
John Torode was also dropped as a presenter after he said he was the subject of a substantiated complaint over the use of racist language, which he believes never happened.
Shafi, a leadership and management development partner for St John Ambulance, said she came from a “family of foodies” and had entered the programme as a tribute to her late mother, who was a pioneering Indian cookery teacher.
Once the allegations against Wallace emerged, Shafi told Banijay she was against the programme being broadcast. It culminated in “quite a heated conversation” with a producer.
She said she was urged to think about the life-changing opportunity the show provided to some contestants. Shafi was then told about the “potential solution” to edit her out of the programme.
“I was flabbergasted, because in what way was that a solution – and a solution for whom?” Shafi said. “My point was not about me not being associated with it. My point was about the institutional enabling environment. I said I am completely against this airing of the show. I object to it strongly. This is the principle I’m standing by. I’m objecting to the show being aired, not about me being in it.”
She agreed to be edited out once the BBC publicly confirmed the series would be shown.
When the BBC announced the decision to press ahead with the series, it acknowledged “not everyone will agree” and that doing so “in no way diminishes our view of the seriousness of the upheld findings against both presenters”.
Shafi said: “While the BBC are signalling how life changing, for the better, this could be for some contestants – I’d say top 10 at most – where is the respect for how life changing, for the worse, it has been for the victims?
“What I suggested to them was: ‘Why don’t you do a special show dedicated to these people that excludes those prominent figures – but it focuses on the talent?’”
The BBC reiterated its decision to air the series was not an easy one. “Banijay consulted with all the contestants before that decision was made and there was widespread support for it going ahead,” it said. “We are sorry that this contestant does not support the decision and we are grateful she raised this with both the BBC and Banijay.”
A Banijay UK spokesperson said: “We are sorry that Sarah does not support the decision to air this series of MasterChef. We carefully considered her concerns about broadcasting the series and discussed them with the BBC. However, having consulted with all contributors in the series ahead of the decision being made, the resounding feeling from those taking part was support for airing the series.”