Mark for MasterChef 2025 / BBC
Age: 66
Occupation: Chartered Surveyor
From: Halifax
How would you describe your style of cooking?
“My style of cooking is easy going. I don’t profess to be a genuine chef but really enjoy cooking for myself and others. ‘Enjoy it’, I say to my guests, because it won’t be the same next time. Having said that, I do like to try different food types from plain, wholesome cottage pie to Indonesian Nasi Goreng with lots of other food types in between. I do tend to veer down the pan-Asian route – inspired by my father’s cooking, who was influenced during WW2 and when he spent time in the Far East.”
What is your favourite ingredient to cook with and why?
“That’s a tough one. I’m not sure if I have a favourite ingredient. But if I have to choose one it is probably ginger root followed hard on the heels by ground coriander. These together with onion can be the base for so much, not forgetting tinned tomatoes.”
Why did you enter MasterChef this year?
“I wanted to show others who find themselves suddenly on their own that there is a future and that cooking provides not just sustenance for the body but for the soul too. It is, quite literally, life-giving, and by taking part in MasterChef it links food, future and happiness together.”
MasterChef continues Wednesday at 8pm on BBC One.
