Masterchef disaster as John Torode gets hiccups from spicy dish as contestants cook their family favourites

JOHN Torode ended up with a bad bout of hiccups after struggling to deal with a spicy dish.

In a deeply personal audition round, nine home cooks were set the task to rustle up their family's favourite meal - with recipes hailing from all over the world.

The BBC cookery show returned to screens last week, with budding chefs looking to become the champions of this year's competition.

But it was bad news for John after he tasted one of the dishes from Gambia.

Ngoneh, 38, from Hull, has lived in the UK for 12 years and loves cooking food from her native country.

"I want John and Gregg to have the Gambian experience on MasterChef and I hope I do justice to that," she said.

Her dish was Red Mullet stuffed with spring onion, parsley and garlic, served with Jollof Rice and an okra, spinach Besab chutney with caramelised spiced rainbow carrots and green beans.

John admitted: "I have no idea what that is".

"I'm excited about it," he added.

She served chilli sauce on the side, and it was that condiment that pushed John over the edge.

"Your chilly sauce is... wonderfully hot..." he stuttered before getting an aggressive case of the hiccups.

"Excuse me, I've got chilly hiccups," he said.

Gregg on the other hand was as cool as a cucumber, and said: "I like that, in terms of flavour you don't do things by half.

As well as Gambia, the chefs feasted on food from Vietnam, Ireland, Slovenia, Morocco, South Africa and Hungary - with many of the recipes leaving the pair lost for words.

This comes as Gregg refused to eat one of the contestant's dishes after it was raw.

Nky, a civil servant presented her paprika and cayenne pepper seasoned thighs that were pan-fried after being boiled in oxtail soup.

John and Gregg were served the Nyk's dish, along with fried rice and a salsa salad, however Gregg wasn't too thrilled with the chicken.

He began: "You have wonderful flavour on here Nky, inside your rice and on your chicken skin, I really like it."

Gregg then pointed out a "major problem" with the food, as he refused to eat it.

The judge added: "The major, major problem I have here, I'm sorry to say, is your chicken here is too pink for me to eat."

Nky responded to the remarks and her feelings about the dish, saying, "I had lots of time, I don't know why his chicken had to be pink."

But despite the Gregg pointing out this problem, John seemed to love the "flavour" of the Nyk's dish.