Age: 70
From: Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire
Occupation: Retired new business manager turned volunteer charity worker
Cooking Style: "My style of cooking is mainly English and European with some Middle Eastern influences. I'm happy to go to the cupboard and put a meal together from whatever is in there, which is good as I'm not always great at planning my meals!
"My mother and her mother inspired my basic cooking as they were very good cooks. They were used to excellent ingredients. As a farming family they could even take a chicken from pecking round the yard to the table. My mother-in-law, who is French, has also inspired me. She had a strong French classical foundation to her cooking but then lived in Tunisia as a teacher for 10 years, so picked up a lot from the Tunisian culture and cuisine."
Why MasterChef?: "Having reached 70 and being retired from work, I wanted to test myself and get out of my comfort zone. MasterChef certainly did that."
Ambition: "My dream is to make a cheese soufflé as perfect as I've had at Le Gavroche, or any of the food cooked by Michel Roux Jr."
MasterChef continues Thursday at 8pm on BBC One and iPlayer.
Neil Wilkes
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