Furious Celebrity Masterchef fans blast Sid Owen’s expert culinary past
Former EastEnders actor owned a restaurant and even released his own cookbook
SID Owen has been accused of having an unfair advantage on Celebrity Masterchef after fans discovered he owned his own restaurant and released a cookbook.
The EastEnders actor made it through the first round of competition earlier this week, impressing judges John Torode and Gregg Wallace with his fish pie.
But after Sid mentioned he had released his own cookbook in 2007, Life on a Plate: The Journey of an Unlikely Chef, viewers were up in arms about his inclusion in the amateur cooking show.
Taking to Twitter, one fan wrote: "Hang on, Sid Owen is a restauranteur & cook book writer. Unfair advantage, no?" while another added: "how is Sid Owen allowed to be on it? He has written a cook book!!"
One viewer even tweeted a picture of the cookbook's cover, alongside the message: "Great to see amateur chef Sid Owen on Masterchef. #CelebrityMasterChef".
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Sid's book is still available on websites such as Amazon, with the description revealing how invested the actor is in cooking.
It reads: "While most of us associate Sid Owen with Eastenders, I'm a Celebrity... and Bad Girls, what is little known is that, since childhood, Sid has been dedicated to expanding his culinary repertoire and learning as much as he can about food and cookery.
"This journey has taken him around the world, and even led him to buy and manage a restaurant in the south of France."
The 44-year-old, who played Ricky Butcher on the BBC One soap, bought a restaurant in Aubeterre-sur-Dronne, where he lived on and off back in 2002.
Speaking of his culinary business, Sid said: "I called it Fortuno, Latin for good luck. It went well-we made money.”
However, the actor sold the to return to Britain, adding: “With the restaurant, because of other work commitments, I was hardly there and noticed standards slipping. It had to be hands on or nothing.”
But his past experience as a restaurateur also wound Celebrity Masterchef viewers up the wrong way, with one tweeting: "Sid Owen owns(ed?) a restaurant and has a cookbook, hardly fair..." while another added: "Sid Owen has given up acting to focus on being a restauranteur-so he's at an advantage here #CelebrityMasterChef".
A fellow viewer added: "Sorry-what is Sid Owen doing on #CelebrityMasterChef ?? He's a restauranteur who's written a cookbook! #cheat".
Another fan of the show was puzzled as to why Sid seemed so frazzled during the pro-kitchen part of the episode, writing: "I thought @sidowen5 used to run a restaurant in the SoF so why he's so shocked by the kitchen experience tonight I'm not sure #masterchef".