Yahoo News Strictly's Vito Coppola reveals how spinach got him in trouble with his mum
The professional dancer was challenged to cook a meal with an ingredient he hated for the Celebrity MasterChef semi-final.
What did you miss?
Celebrity MasterChef contestant revealed he has not eaten spinach since it got him in trouble with his mother as a child.
The Strictly Come Dancing pro dancer has made it to the semi-finals of the BBC cooking show and was challenged by judges John Torode and Gregg Wallace to make a meal with an ingredient he doesn't like.
Coppola chose spinach, admitted he "hates" the leafy green. And he disliked it so much he did not even taste his own spinach sauce before serving it to the judges.
What, how, and why?
The semi-finalists were tasked with cooking a dish centred around an ingredient they detested.
Strictly star Coppola confessed: "Today I am a bit anxious. I'm not going to lie I don't like spinach! My mum tried all the way possible to give met the spinach. When she just turned around I just went out from the balcony and spat it out.
"After two minutes out neighbour came up with the white bedsheet just clean, all green. She said: 'You threw the spinach from the balcony. My mum really told me off. But that was the last time that she offered me spinach as a meal."
The dancer made spinach ravioli, with spinach pasta, filled with runny egg yolk and a spinach and ricotta sauce. He hated spinach so much he asked rival contestant Jake Quickenden to taste his spinach sauce for him. Quickenden told Coppola the sauce was "delicious". Then he joked: "Sabotage! It tasted horrible! No, it didn't."
Boxer-turned-actor Tamer Hassan made a beef wellington flavoured with his most hated ingredient - truffle. He confessed: "I'm that bad, if truffle goes inside me, within three minutes I'm throwing up."
For their first challenge the celebrities cooked an Anglo-Saxon feast for a Viking reenactment group at Butser Ancient Farm, an open air historical museum in Hampshire, without using ingredients including potatoes or tomatoes, which were not native to England at the time.
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They were divided into two teams, red and blue. The red team consisted of This Morning presenter Craig Doyle, Coppola, Hassan and Gladiators star Harry Aikines-Aryeetey. The Blue team was made up of Line of Duty actor Rochenda Sandall, make-up artist Dominic Skinner, X Factor star Quickenden and Ian H Watkins, from Steps.
Italian dancer Coppola made a mushroom risotto for his team's vegetarian option. But he was heartbroken when he had hardly any takers for his risotto. Hardman Hassan appealed to the Butser Farm workers: "I've got a very unhappy Italian in there. If anyone wants risotto, we've got lots more."
What else happened on Celebrity MasterChef?
Quickenden cooked gnocchi for his disliked ingredient, but he did not do enough to impress the judges and was sent home.
He said: "It is disappointing that I'm leaving cos I was having lots of the time. It was much more challenging than I ever thought, but I got to cook in a restaurant.
"I got to see some Vikings. I've had a right laugh, so I'm really happy."
Celebrity MasterChef airs on BBC One at 8pm on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.
