Passion for food cooks up TV hit show that we can savour

As they judge the dishes served up by hopefuls, their job is not to make cheap digs for the amusement of the viewers but to give incisive and inspirational feedback. Egos may bruise, but that's not what Gregg and John set out to do – they just care about the cooking.

Gregg explains: "It isn't celebrity TV, it's an honest approach to a cookery competition, we don't ask people if they are doing it for any dead relatives, we're not interested if any of their pets have died, what we're worried about is the quality of their soup."

That said, the two do sometimes differ in their reactions – which Gregg thinks is down to the fact that John is a chef and restaurateur, while he is a greengrocer by trade.

He says: "If John can see skill, and he can see potential, then he'll want to promote that person and I don't really care. All I care about is the end result. If the end result is good, that's enough for me. It could taste like Satan's bottom and John will say, 'But look, he did this, he did that'."

John adds: "Some of the stuff served up is absolutely amazing, some of the stuff served up is a bit weird, some of the stuff served up is atrocious, but even if it is atrocious there might be something tiny in there that makes you think that they've got something, that there is something brilliant there."

What the two men agree on, however, is the talent on display in the new series of the competition. which started last Thursday.

"What's really surprised us is the quality of the food. I know we say this every year but honestly this is the best standard we have ever seen. I find it difficult to believe that we are going to surpass the quality that we have in this year's final. It's quite incredible. I expect at least two of them to become household names and culinary giants," Gregg says proudly.

This is not such an outlandish claim. Former graduates of the TV show include Thomasina Miers, who went on to found the small but successful Wahaca restaurant chain, James Nathan, who is now working with top chef Rick Stein, and Mat Follas, who last year opened the restaurant Wild Garlic in Suffolk.

John says: "You can't just read a book now and win Masterchef. In a way, before you could practise four or five dishes, read a book, have some knowledge and get through Masterchef. You wouldn't get to the stage where you would win but you would go a fairly long way, now you'll be found out very, very fast indeed."

As the competition heats up towards the end of the series, they also take the competitors on location to India and challenge them to cook for a banquet at the Tower of London.

"Seeing them in the dark, getting from the kitchen, across cobblestones over the battlements in order to get to the Great Hall is one of my favourite moments," Gregg says gleefully.

John and Gregg are signed up to host the show in its current format for two more years, and they both hope there will be even more to come.

"Everything's got a shelf life, it will probably do what it did before, it'll stop, it will have a gap and come back in another form. I hope it's got 30 years to go – but you'll have to pure all the food for us," Gregg says, laughing