'MasterChef' to return with new challenges, 'Buttery Biscuit Base' tribute and judging by Gordon Ramsay

TV's toughest cooking contest is heading back to our screens and this time it's had a shake-up - including a challenge inspired by MasterChef hit song Buttery Biscuit Base and a terrifying round judged by Gordon Ramsay.

MasterChef returns for an 18th series to BBC One next week and regular viewers will see some changes to the format as 45 amateur cooks take up their places in the kitchen.

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Contestants this time include an NHS worker, a theatre director, a beer bike tour guide, a childcare worker, a bank manager and a retired head teacher who will be put through their paces by John Torode and Gregg Wallace.

The audition rounds take up the first five weeks as each time nine cooks arrive with their own ingredients to try to cook a standout signature dish, served up to Torode and Wallace in the tasting room who will not have witnessed what happened in the kitchen.

They'll choose their three favourites to go through to the next round and then move back into the kitchen to watch the remaining six cook another signature dish - sweet if they made savoury first and vice versa - before sending two cooks home.

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In the semi-finals, challenges include cooking for 20 former MasterChef contestants, creating a special lunch for the centenary of the Royal British Legion, and a fun task to make a dish celebrating 10 years since Wallace's critique on the show inspired track Buttery Biscuit Base which reached the top 40 in the UK charts.

Finalists will travel to Ireland to remember Myrtle Allen at Ballymaloe House and Cookery School, where chefs from all over the world come to learn the late, great patron’s philosophy.

The final three contestants will take on the chef's table challenge in front of the formidable Gordon Ramsay at Restaurant Gordon Ramsay in London, before heading back into the MasterChef kitchen to produce their best three dishes yet for Torode and Wallace who will choose the 2022 champion.

MasterChef begins on Wednesday, 23 March at 8pm on BBC One.

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