You ask the questions

Such as: Loyd Grossman, why has the BBC treated you so badly?

Loyd Grossman was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1950. After graduating, he moved to England to study at the LSE. As well as contributing to newspapers and magazines, Loyd was restaurant critic for Harpers & Queen for 10 years. He made his TV debut in 1983 with Through The Keyhole, which is still running. For the last 10 years he has also presented Masterchef and since 1994 Junior Masterchef, but recently quit after a dispute with the BBC. He lives in London with his wife, two daughters and their West Highland terrier.

Loyd Grossman was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1950. After graduating, he moved to England to study at the LSE. As well as contributing to newspapers and magazines, Loyd was restaurant critic for Harpers & Queen for 10 years. He made his TV debut in 1983 with Through The Keyhole, which is still running. For the last 10 years he has also presented Masterchef and since 1994 Junior Masterchef, but recently quit after a dispute with the BBC. He lives in London with his wife, two daughters and their West Highland terrier.

Whose keyhole would you really like to look through? Gaynor Well, by e-mail

I haven't done as many rock stars as I would like and I would very much like to to do the house of one of my all-time musical heroes, Jimmy Page, to see what his guitar collection is like and his life outside music.

If you were a contestant on celebrity Ready Steady Cook who would be your designated chef? T CharltonFurness, Glos

I'd settle for either one of the Roux brothers because they combine tremendous technical ability with great taste, huge enthusiasm and a good sense of humour. So either Albert or Michel would be ideal to rescue me in the kitchen.

Do you watch The Weakest Link? What do you think of Anne Robinson's quiz-master persona? Mia Stukeley, Derby

Not only have I watched it but I've just finished recording the Comic Relief Weakest Link as one of the eight victims, and the way I feel now, the emphasis is on the word victim. Anne's persona was a cross between genuine menace and a schoolmistress. But of course in real life she's nothing like that - we did have a laugh when we weren't being tormented, it's all just panto really. Also, a personal message to Bob Geldof - Bob, I forgive you.

I have watched Masterchef for around eight years and I can't believe what the BBC have done to you. Why do you think they did it? Tyler Suzman,Southampton

I quit Masterchef because, whilst recognising that a 10-year-old programme needs to change, I felt the changes the BBC were proposing were really not going to serve our audience well. One of the really great things about

Masterchef is that it reached way beyond a hardcore of people interested in cookery and it got many, many other people interested in cookery. It seems to me the BBC wanted to make the programme less of a competition, which is unusual, seeing as it was a competition and it was the competitive element which was central to its appeal. They also suggested they wanted more practical cookery tips interspersed into the programme and they wanted to move away from a mass audience into the necessarily more restricted audience of BBC2. I'm a populist, and one of the things I think TV can do is open up possibilities for the broadest general group of viewers.

What do you think of the ever-expanding breed of celeb chefs? Kelis Vasey, by e-mail

I do think there are perhaps too many chefs spending too much time in TV studios and not enough time in the kitchen. The problem is that it means the talented chefs who are not particularly TV flavour of the month become neglected. I can think of many who are extraordinarily talented, such as Michel Bourdin at the Connaught or David Wilson at the Peat Inn in Fife who for various reasons don't appear on TV very much and as a result don't seem to get the recognition from the public that they deserve.

If you were marooned on a desert island, what three essential items could you not live without? Marta Kingsdown, Brighton

The three essential items of my life are my family, my dog and my friends. Everything else is just an extra. But if we are talking about hardware I'd like to bring one or two fishing rods, an ever-expanding bookcase because I couldn't manage without lots of books to read, and a tomato because I love tomatoes.

If you tasted something really bad on Masterchef would you say? Luke Ross, London

I never tasted anything really bad because the cooks were so experienced. Occasionally people did come up with a strange idea, but they were always well executed. Occasionally I tasted things that I really didn't like, and tended to describe them as "interesting", or say they were perhaps not as successful as they might have been.