Gregg Wallace and John Torode are tying on their aprons and scrubbing the chopping blocks as they get ready to open the MasterChef kitchen again.

The pair are hungry to start the hunt for the 13th champion of the amateur cooking contest.

The new series will see a diverse range of participants, including a tiler, an architect, a surgeon and a musician, vying for the coveted title of MasterChef 2017.

The competition will take place over 25 episodes, spread over seven weeks on BBC1.

MasterChef (BBC)
MasterChef (BBC)

The hopefuls will face a range of kitchen-based trials, old and new, including the Market Challenge, in which they must devise a dish from ingredients at a market stocked with produce from around the globe.

Some entrants will also face the Critics’ Test, whipping up their tastiest treats for food critics Amol Rajan, William Sitwell, Tracey MacLeod and Jay Rayner.

The stakes will be even higher in Knockout Week when the cooks will be thrown into a restaurant environment to cook for the paying public under the guidance of renowned chefs Shaun Rankin, at Ormer Mayfair, and Steve Groves, at Roux at Parliament Square.

Another test will see them cooking in a tent on location for the 120 cast and crew of BBC1 show Holby City.

MasterChef (BBC)
MasterChef (BBC)

MasterChef returns to BBC1 this spring.