Gorebridge and Dunfermline amateur cooks set to appear in latest MasterChef series

During lockdown the country has been trying out new recipes and cooking at home more than ever before and against this background, the country’s premier cooking competition, MasterChef is returning for its 17th series.

Contestants Zane Chetty, a 42-year-old engineer from Dunfermline and 26-year-old dog walker Ross Gregor from Gorebridge have been picked from thousands of hopefuls to become two of the UK’s most passionate and talented amateur cooks who are set to be put through their paces in the ultimate test of their culinary prowess as they search for one exceptional home cook worthy of being crowned Masterchef Champion 2021.

Both cooks will compete in different heats to move on to the quarter finals of the competition and try to prove to judges John Torode and Gregg Wallace that they have what it takes to don a coveted Masterchef apron and proceed further into the competition.

Zane is set to appear in the third show in the series on Friday March 5, while Ross is expected to compete in the competition in the following week.

And the standard of this year’s cooks has exceeded even the judge’s expectations.

In a Radio Times interview, judge Gregg Wallace said that he thinks the ability on this year’s show is so high even previous MasterChef winners would struggle against them.

He told Radio Times: “I think it [the competition] goes up every year.

“What we realised, me and John, was that the standard was incredible even at the early stages. What we suspect has happened is because so many people are working from home, we think they’ve had a lot more time to practice, because we couldn’t believe the standard of the cooks in the early rounds. We normally get a mixed bag. This time we were getting good cook off after good cook after good cook.”

The competition heats up for the 17th series as it begins on BBC One on March 1 at 9pm.

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