BBC to revive TV cookery show Ready Steady Cook

TV staple Ready Steady Cook is returning with a new host – Rylan Clark-Neal.

The reboot will air next year on BBC One daytime, with "contemporary food themes".

Ready Steady Cook was presented from 2000 until 2010 by Ainsley Harriott, who replaced Fern Britton, and notched up history as the longest-running cookery show on British TV screens.

New host Clark-Neal, 30, said his experience as a finalist on Celebrity MasterChef taught him "how tough cooking under pressure can be".

The X Factor star turned TV presenter said: "I'm so excited that Ready Steady Cook is finally coming back to our screens. To be asked to host such an amazing show for the BBC is such a privilege....

"I'm sure that the mix of new challenges, fantastic chefs and enthusiastic cooks will be a recipe for success, maybe with the odd disaster. I can't wait to get in the kitchen!"

Each episode will see two contestants paired up with a chef, going head-to-head in the newly designed Ready Steady Cook kitchen.

Contestants on the cookery show will face new challenges – eating healthily, cooking on a budget and managing food waste – while racing against the clock.

A casting vote on the show's winner will be left to the audience who will decide on the best dishes using the familiar red tomato and green pepper voting cards.

Carla-Maria Lawson, acting head of BBC daytime, said: "Ready Steady Cook is a celebration of the much-loved BBC One daytime show, reimagined for contemporary Britain."

The new line-up of chefs include Mike Reid, Romy Gill, Akis Petretzikis, Ellis Barrie and Anna Haugh.

Ready Steady Cook first appeared on TV screens in 1994.