Ed Gamble to host a food-based Taskmaster spin-off

Foodmaster being piloted next week

Ed Gamble is hosting a food-related Taskmaster spin-off that could become a new Channel 4 series.

A pilot episode of Foodmaster is being recorded next Wednesday with five celebrity contestants ‘coming together to celebrate food’.

Producers Avalon says: ‘Using their creativity, ingenuity and lateral thinking the celebrity contestants will take part in a delectable competition set to showcase their culinary creativity rather than straight cooking skills as they try to answer the question: Food is great, but how can it be improved?’

When tickets to be in the studio audience for the tester episode were announced, Gamble posted on social media: ‘Imagine if I was in a new TV thing? I’d want a nice audience I’d imagine’ – and pasted a link. However tickets for pilot – which will not be broadcast – have now sold out.

Gamble's Foodmaster post

British Comedy Guide today say Gamble will be the host. And when The Sun first revealed the project last month, they quoted an unnamed insider saying: ‘The show promises to deliver all that Taskmaster goodness and more. Greg [Davies] and Alex [Horne] won’t be involved in this one but the team are ready to film the pilot soon and Channel 4 will then consider taking it to a full run.’

The broadcaster has already ordered a Junior Taskmaster spin-off hosted by Rose Matafeo, and Mike Wozniak.

Gamble is becoming increasingly tied to food, having presented the Off Menu podcast with James Acaster since 2018. He has been a judge on Great British Menu and has just written his memoirs, entitled Glutton: The Multi-Course Life Of A Very Greedy Boy, to be published in October.

Channel 4 has committed to six more series of Taskmaster, taking the show through to at least 2026. The next season, the 16th, will feature Julian Clary, Lucy Beaumont, Sam Campbell, Sue Perkins and Susan Wokoma.

The pilot episode is to be taped at the Riverside Studios in Hammersmith, West London.

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Published: 11 Jul 2023