Cooking with the Stars – 2025 Cast, Results and Guide

Cooking with the Stars is a British ITV television series that pairs celebrities with professional chefs in a competitive cooking environment. The show follows a format where contestants learn culinary skills and techniques before facing elimination challenges judged by a panel. The fifth series premiered in summer 2025, continuing the annual summer tradition established when the programme first aired on ITV in 2021.

Hosted by Emma Willis and Tom Allen, the programme presents a unique blend of entertainment and education, with eight celebrities working alongside experienced mentors to develop their cooking abilities. The co-production with Marks & Spencer adds a commercial dimension, highlighting recipe development and ingredient quality throughout each series.

What is Cooking with the Stars 2025?

Cooking with the Stars 2025 represents the fifth instalment of the ITV series, airing on ITV1 during the summer months. The format centres on eight celebrities who are paired with professional chefs who serve as their mentors throughout the competition. Each week, contestants prepare dishes during judged cook-offs, with the bottom two performers required to cook solo in elimination challenges to secure their place in the series.

The programme emphasises skill progression from amateur level to professional standards, with contestants recreating dishes learned during their training sessions. The competitive structure ensures that each episode builds tension as participants demonstrate newly acquired techniques while facing progressively challenging elimination rounds.

Key facts about Cooking with the Stars

• Debuted on ITV in July 2021 with its first series
• Presented annually during summer months
• Features eight celebrity contestants per series
• Each celebrity paired with a professional chef mentor
• Bottom two performers face elimination cook-offs weekly
• Co-produced by Marks & Spencer

Who is in the Cooking with the Stars cast?

The Series 5 lineup for 2025 featured eight celebrities from diverse backgrounds in entertainment, media, and sports. Each contestant was assigned a professional chef mentor who guided their development throughout the competition. The complete cast included established television personalities, rising stars from reality programmes, and experienced figures from other industries.

Natalie Cassidy, known for her role as Sonia Fowler in the BBC soap opera EastEnders, participated at age 42 under the mentorship of Tony Singh. Her casting represented a connection to traditional British television programming within the celebrity lineup.

Ekin-Su Cülcüloğlu, who gained recognition as the winner of Love Island in 2022, brought reality television experience to the competition. She was mentored by Poppy O’Toole, representing a younger demographic of contestants entering the cooking competition space.

Actor and comedian Hugh Dennis joined the series with April Jackson initially assigned as his mentor. However, this arrangement changed in Week 3 when Jack Stein took over mentoring duties for Dennis, demonstrating the adaptive nature of the mentor pairings throughout the series.

Complete cast and mentor pairings for 2025

• Natalie Cassidy (EastEnders actress, 42) mentored by Tony Singh
• Ekin-Su Cülcüloğlu (Love Island 2022 winner) mentored by Poppy O’Toole
• Hugh Dennis (actor/comedian) mentored initially by April Jackson, then Jack Stein from Week 3
• Kelly Hoppen (interior designer, Dragon’s Den investor) mentored by Michael Caines
• Jordan North (Capital Radio DJ/presenter) mentored by Rosemary Shrager
• Jack Osbourne (media personality) mentored by Elliott Grover
• Jessica Wright (TOWIE star, Mark Wright’s sister) mentored by Jack Stein
• Shaun Wright-Phillips (former footballer) mentored by Shelina Permalloo

The cast featured a mix of ages, backgrounds, and cooking experience levels, creating diverse pairings between celebrities and professional chefs. This variety contributed to different learning approaches and competitive dynamics throughout the series.

Who won Cooking with the Stars 2025?

The final episode of the 2025 series concluded on 7 September 2025. Jack Osbourne finished as the runner-up, while Kelly Hoppen secured third place. However, the identity of the winner for Series 5 remains unspecified in available sources, representing a gap in the documented results for that season.

The elimination sequence throughout the series followed a consistent pattern, with weekly departures reducing the field from eight contestants to the final three. Jess Wright was the first eliminated on 3 August 2025, followed by Ekin-Su Cülcüloğlu on 10 August 2025, with Hugh Dennis departing on 17 August 2025.

Series 5 elimination timeline

1. Jess Wright eliminated 1st (3 August 2025)
2. Ekin-Su Cülcüloğlu eliminated 2nd (10 August 2025)
3. Hugh Dennis eliminated 3rd (17 August 2025)
4. Jordan North eliminated 4th (24 August 2025)
5. Shaun Wright-Phillips eliminated 5th (31 August 2025)
6. Kelly Hoppen finished third (7 September 2025)
7. Jack Osbourne finished runner-up (7 September 2025)

Cooking with the Stars winners list

Documented information about past winners extends primarily to the most recent complete seasons. Series 4 in 2024 saw Ellie Simmonds emerge as the winner, with Pasha Kovalev finishing in third place. The Paralympic swimmer’s victory represented one of the clearer winner records available for the programme’s history.

A comprehensive list of all winners across every series has not been established in publicly available sources. This gap makes it difficult to provide a complete historical overview of competition results. The programme’s relatively short history, beginning in 2021, means only four complete series have been documented before the 2025 season.

For viewers interested in the complete winners record, consulting dedicated fan resources or ITV’s official programme archives may provide additional information not currently reflected in general news coverage and programme summaries.

What happened in previous series?

The first series premiered on 13 July 2021, establishing the format that would define subsequent seasons. Each annual summer run brought new celebrity contestants and professional mentors, with the Marks & Spencer partnership providing commercial continuity across the programme’s evolution.

The fourth series in 2024 provided the most complete winner documentation, with Ellie Simmonds winning on 3 September 2024. This recent winner data point offers the clearest benchmark for understanding competition outcomes, though direct comparisons with the 2025 series remain limited by the incomplete winner documentation for the most recent season.

Cooking with the Stars recipes

The recipes featured in Cooking with the Stars centre on dishes prepared by contestants during their training sessions and competition rounds. The show emphasises technique development and professional-standard preparation methods, with contestants learning to recreate dishes that reflect the guidance of their mentor chefs.

Specific recipe details from the 2025 series have not been comprehensively documented in available sources. The programme focuses more on the learning process and competitive dynamics rather than detailed recipe documentation. However, contestants work with professional-grade ingredients and techniques throughout each episode.

The Marks & Spencer partnership influences the ingredient quality and recipe development throughout each series, with commercial ties ensuring consistent product placement and recipe inspiration aligned with seasonal offerings. This commercial dimension shapes the culinary content while maintaining the entertainment value of the competition format.

For those interested in specific recipe recreations, external resources and cooking websites may offer adaptations of dishes featured during the programme. The emphasis on foundational techniques means many recipes can be approximated using standard cooking methods taught by the professional mentors.

When did Cooking with the Stars start?

Cooking with the Stars debuted on ITV on 13 July 2021, establishing the summer cooking competition format that would become an annual fixture in the television schedule. The first series introduced the core concept of celebrity contestants learning from professional chefs in a competitive elimination environment.

1. 13 July 2021: Series 1 premiere, establishing the format with initial celebrity cast
2. Subsequent years: Annual summer runs continued through 2022, 2023, and 2024
3. 2024: Series 4 aired, with Ellie Simmonds winning on 3 September 2024
4. 3 August 2025: Series 5 premiered on ITV1
5. 7 September 2025: Series 5 final episode aired, Jack Osbourne runner-up, Kelly Hoppen third

The programme’s summer scheduling has remained consistent throughout its run, positioning Cooking with the Stars as a regular feature of British summer television. This predictable annual return allows viewers to anticipate new celebrity participants and fresh mentor pairings each season.

What is confirmed and unconfirmed about Cooking with the Stars

Several aspects of Cooking with the Stars are clearly established through official sources and documented coverage. The programme structure, hosts, and general format remain consistent across available information from Radio Times and other entertainment publications.

Gaps in available documentation mean that certain questions about the programme remain unanswered in publicly accessible sources. Viewers seeking complete information about winners or future series may need to consult ITV’s official communications or programme-specific databases for updates.

About Cooking with the Stars as a programme

Cooking with the Stars occupies a specific niche within British food television, combining celebrity appeal with genuine culinary education. The programme’s structure, which pairs entertainment figures with professional chefs, creates a dual focus on personality-driven content and skill development.

The ITV broadcast platform ensures substantial audience reach, while the Marks & Spencer partnership provides commercial sustainability and ingredient quality assurance. This combination of entertainment value and practical cooking education distinguishes the programme from more strictly competitive formats or purely instructional cooking shows.

The inclusion of diverse celebrity backgrounds, from soap opera actors to interior designers and radio presenters, ensures varied contestant dynamics while maintaining accessibility for general audiences. This breadth of participation types reflects the programme’s aim to demonstrate that cooking skills can develop across any starting point.

The format emphasises skill progression from amateur to professional level, with contestants recreating learned dishes using professional techniques under the guidance of their assigned mentors.

For viewers interested in exploring similar cooking content, IMDB’s programme page offers additional cast and episode information, while Wikipedia’s comprehensive entry provides historical context across all series.

Summary: What to know about Cooking with the Stars

Cooking with the Stars is an ITV cooking competition that has run annually since July 2021, with its fifth series airing in summer 2025. Hosted by Emma Willis and Tom Allen, the programme pairs eight celebrities with professional chef mentors who guide their development through weekly elimination challenges. The ITV broadcast schedule positions the show as a regular summer fixture.

The 2025 cast included Natalie Cassidy, Ekin-Su Cülcüloğlu, Hugh Dennis, Kelly Hoppen, Jordan North, Jack Osbourne, Jessica Wright, and Shaun Wright-Phillips, each paired with professional chefs including Tony Singh, Poppy O’Toole, Michael Caines, and others. The series concluded on 7 September 2025 with Jack Osbourne as runner-up and Kelly Hoppen in third place, though the winner remained unspecified in available sources.

For those interested in cooking techniques demonstrated on the programme, foundational skills like proper yorkshire pudding preparation and fruit preparation methods provide useful starting points for home cooks seeking to develop professional-level abilities similar to those showcased during the series.

Frequently asked questions about Cooking with the Stars