Claire for MasterChef 2025 Heat 2 / BBC
Age: 46
Occupation: Copywriter
From: Newark-on-Trent via Doncaster and Canada
How would you describe your style of cooking?
“I love to cook a huge variety of different cuisines – a jack of all foods and a master of none. The biggest influences are home-grown vegetables as I’ve grown veggies most of my life. I’m also influenced by dishes from my travels around the world and the strong culinary traditions of my husband’s Danish family. I’ve inherited a love for Scandinavian flavours and techniques, many of which have found their way into our own family’s food traditions.
“I’m a Yorkshire girl at heart so I believe strongly in the benefits of gravy and custard, and a weekly infusion of at least one portion keeps me grounded!”
What is your favourite ingredient to cook with and why?
“Most of my favourite meals have garlic – it appears in so many cuisines from French, Italian, Greek, Chinese, Thai and now British cooking.”
Why did you enter MasterChef this year?
“My husband really pushed me to apply for MasterChef so that I could celebrate how much cooking has meant to me in the last nine years during a tricky time in my life.”
MasterChef returns Wednesday at 8pm on BBC One.
