Alex George had seemingly never seen a pizza before on Celebrity MasterChef, by Jim Shelley

Celebrity MasterChef left you with a newfound respect for Domino’s but slightly worried about the NHS.

Heat Two started with Gregg Wallace and John Torode ordering pizzas from this week’s five contestants: Alex George (the A&E doctor from Love Island 2018), Jenny Ryan (The Vixen on The Chase), Dom Parker (the posho from Gogglebox), stand-up comedian Josie Long, and Mim Shaikh (a presenter on BBC Radio 1Xtra who departed the series when, incredibly, the judges decided to keep a famous name from Love Island).

A&E doctor Alex George seemed like a nice bloke (as he did on Love Island) but didn’t always inspire complete confidence when you thought of him professionally (ditto).

Admittedly, nothing compared to his most alarming trait in the villa last summer: his propensity to get sunburn. This went on for weeks – leaving his shoulders and face in particular consistently so sore he was literally painful to look at and virtually glowing.

If you were rushed into A&E on Friday night with a medical emergency, would you really want to be treated by a doctor who couldn’t operate a bottle of Factor 50?

To be fair at least Alex took the show in his stride, remaining calm even working in the kitchen of London’s Baptiste Grill. 

Unlike a lot of contestants, he (commendably) never suggested the ‘pressure’ of cooking on Celebrity Masterchef was worse than his job.

On the down side, the pizza he made was… weird.

It seemed like a relatively straightforward challenge but the way Gregg Wallace and John Torode acted, you’d think they had invented pizza, or were at least connoisseurs.

‘A pizza is an absolutely adored meal isn’t it?!’ bellowed Gregg at the five bewildered chefs. ‘It’s pretty much universal.’

Yes we know. 

‘We want something that’s not sloppy in the middle,’ explained Torode. ‘With toppings that go together.’

I’m pretty sure literally everyone watching at home knew what a pizza should look like, and what you could – or couldn’t – put on them.

Nonetheless, Torode raved about Mim’s as if it were haute cuisine.

‘The cheese across the top is quite salty and sharp!’ he pontificated, which was funny because when he asked what type of cheese had chosen, Shaikh didn’t know.

Gregg Wallace went even further.

‘I LIKE the richness of the tomato puree!’ he cried, even though it was straight out of a tube.

As for Dr. Alex George’s creation, you had to wonder if he’d seen many pizzas before.

The size and depth of his dough was more like a Frisbee than even the cheapest abomination from a supermarket freezer.

Alex then, inexplicably, covered this with far too much passata but hardly anything else.  

His topping consisted of only two or three mushrooms and a few weedy slithers of pepperoni that looked decidedly lonely stuck in the red sea of tomato, which was clearly dry and over-cooked.

Worst of all, when it came to the type of cheese for his topping, Alex had selected cheddar, which had a crumbly quality that only made it even dryer. 

The fact Alex didn’t know/work out that pizzas have mozzarella seemed bizarre and possibly didn’t speak volumes for his decision-making.

Perhaps he liked cheddar cheese and passata on his pizza, but it didn’t look very appetising. It was definitely better than Josie Long’s effort, a ragged mess that resembled something she’d fished out of the bin.

‘I like your ingredients !’ roared Wallace, referring to Alex’s completely standard selection of mushroom, pepperoni, and (cheddar) cheese.

On the down side, the judges reiterated his dough and puree were terrible.

‘I think mixed reviews, wasn’t it?’ suggested Alex with optimism that was admirable but entirely unfounded.

He repeated this trick at the end of the final round too – when it transpired that the middle of his coq au vin wasn’t.

‘It’s just annoying,’ sighed Alex. ‘Because otherwise it would have been a good dish.’

True but Gregg Wallace pointed out one significant minor detail: he couldn’t actually judge the chicken properly – because it wasn’t really safe to eat.

You‘d think that, as a doctor, Alex would have made that his priority.