Highlights
- Nitin Ganatra is among the celebrities competing in the second week of Celebrity MasterChef 2026.
- The actor said he is taking part in honour of his mother, whom he described as “the best cook in the world”.
- Ganatra recently won Best Actor at this year’s ACTAs for his role in Apnas.
Nitin Ganatra is taking his family connection to food into the Celebrity MasterChef kitchen, with the actor dedicating his appearance on the BBC show to his late mother.
Ganatra is one of five celebrities competing in the second week of the 2026 series, alongside Donna Preston, Emily Steel, Eric Underwood and YouTuber TommyInnit. This year's competition sees Grace Dent return as a judge alongside new judge Giorgio Locatelli.
Ganatra is doing Celebrity MasterChef for his mum
Explaining why he wanted to take part, Ganatra said: “I’m doing it for my mum who I was extremely close to. She was the best cook in the world.”
The actor said food has always been central to his family, recalling that the first question his mother would ask was: “What do you want to eat?”
His relationship with cooking has also evolved in recent years. Ganatra, who is vegetarian and pre-diabetic, said he has undergone what he described as a “food revolution”, exploring ways to make his cooking healthier.
He describes his style as “improvised, creative, not very attractive but it tastes incredible”, adding that his mother and sister taught him how to blend spices and influenced his love of Indian cuisine.
His cooking roots go back to Kenya
Ganatra was born in Kenya and grew up eating foods including cassava and yam, while his siblings would pick mangoes from the trees.
He learnt to cook poppadoms when he was seven, while his mother's garlic pickle remains one of his favourite family recipes.
The actor said he has tried to eat “clean” in recent years and has become interested in gut health. He now looks for ways to prepare Indian food with less oil and uses dates instead of sugar.
His comfort food is curry made with a tin of Heinz beans, which he learnt to make when he was younger. He also counts cheese among his favourite foods and enjoys it with raw garlic.
Ganatra enters the kitchen after an ACTA win
Ganatra's Celebrity MasterChef appearance comes after a notable achievement in his acting career. At this year's ACTAs, he won Best Actor for playing Aslam Khan in the British Asian crime drama Apnas.
In the series, Ganatra plays a taxi driver and father dealing with family pressures and his son's choices.
Away from the competition, Ganatra has one clear boundary in the kitchen: meat and fish are off the menu. The lifelong vegetarian joked that he “wouldn’t know what to do with a fish” and said his fridge would be filled with vegetarian food.
He also admitted that his biggest guilty pleasure is Walker's cheese and onion crisps.
