Panesar: Masterchef kitchen is tougher than famous Ashes effort in Cardiff

Monty Panesar, who debuts on the BBC show Celebrity Masterchef on Thursday evening, paired up with Jimmy Anderson to repel Australia at Cardiff in a famous draw nine years ago

^{Monty Panesar stars on Celebrity Masterchef this week}

Monty Panesar rates his experience of the Celebrity Masterchef kitchen as a more difficult psychological challenge than his famous rearguard action to save an Ashes Test.

Panesar, who debuts on the BBC show on Thursday evening, paired up with Jimmy Anderson to repel Australia at Cardiff in a famous draw nine years ago.

The two bowlers survived 69 balls together for the final wicket to ensure England got out of a sticky spot, but that was nothing compared to cooking against the clock under the watchful eye of Gregg Wallace and John Torode.

“It’s one of the best experiences I’ve ever had,” Panesar told The Cricketer.

“Mentally, it’s so tough, so exhausting. I sat down with all my colleagues and we all said ‘this is really out there, isn’t it?’ I felt really out of my comfort zone.

“(Against Australia in 2009) you’re trained to do these things, you get practice and you get training so that when you’re in those situations you can do it. Here you’re not really trained for it. You’ve got in the deep end and you’ve got to do something about it.”

Panesar sticks to his Indian roots in tonight’s show and he revealed that his biggest inspiration in the kitchen is, perhaps unsurprisingly, his mum.

^{Panesar and Jimmy Anderson after their 10th-wicket partnership in 2009}

“She said ‘here’s the spice box… watch me, now you do it’,” speaking of how he was introduced to the cookery world.

“She’s multitasking - she’s doing this, she’s on the phone, she’s feeding the little dog Rambo a bit of curry. You only realise what mothers can do when you’re in the kitchen with them.”

So how did it go, Monty?

“I think Gregg Wallace ate all the curry. I said ‘I haven’t got any more, mate… I haven’t got any more left’.

“My dessert was so nice, Gemma Collins goes ‘you know what, can I have more of your dessert?’

“I said ‘you can finish it off if you want’. She did.

“I think I cooked very tasty curries.”

Panesar did not give away the ending but his strategy for winning over one of the judges - Aussie restaurateur John Torode - certainly sound unconventional.

Panesar has caught the cookery bug since the show was filmed

“Gregg is a good guy. He loved the banter with me and we got along really well. I got on really well with John - I think he has his own catering company at the SCG.

“I had a great time with them.

“Gregg’s more of a rugby fan but John is a cricket fan, I think.

“I did have to mention to them that we beat Australia and won the Ashes on Australian soil.

“I said ‘you don’t have to apologise for being Australian but I wanted to remind you that we have beaten you a bit over the last seven or eight years’.

“I did it while I was cooking.”

Being part of the show has given Panesar the culinary bug and in the months since he has been cooking for the homeless via the Islington-based charity Go Dharmic as well as raising money for research into muscular dystrophy by whipping up curries for his team-mates at Hornchurch Cricket Club.

“They love it,” he said. “I think I’ve got my flavourings right, it tastes very authentic.