Entertainment

Neil Ruddock and Joey Essex serve up giant meatballs on MasterChef

The contestants had to make lunch for the staff at London Zoo.
The contestants had to make lunch for the staff at London Zoo. The contestants had to make lunch for the staff at London Zoo.

Celebrity MasterChef viewers saw the funny side when Neil Ruddock and Joey Essex served up meatballs the judges said were the size of “asteroids”.

The contestants were tasked with making a meal for the staff at London Zoo in the latest episode of the BBC show.

Retired footballer Ruddock and former The Only Way Is Essex star Essex were paired up, while Strictly’s Oti Mabuse and designer Dame Zandra Rhodes worked together.

The teams were each given three hours to make 60 main meals (30 meaty and 30 vegetarian) as well as a dessert.

Ruddock and Essex impressed with their Thai vegetarian curry and bread and butter pudding, but their huge meatballs had judges John Torode and Gregg Wallace scratching their heads.

Viewers also thought the dish was a bit unusual.

“Are those meatballs for the gorillas?” asked one person on Twitter.

“They’re not meatballs, they are meat-eors!” quipped another.

“Those meatballs are massive! Are they sure they’re meatballs?!” asked another.

One person tweeted: “Good Christ! The meatball is the size of the plate!”

Another viewer joked: “That meatball played the part of the boulder in Raiders Of The lost Ark.”

The episode did not include an elimination so all four contestants progressed to the next round of the competition.