David Swallow, head chef at The Chestnuts at Gedney, was a finalist in the East of England round of MasterChef in 2001.
David, a self-confessed foodie and avid watcher of the televised cooking contest, applied to go on the programme for about six years.
Prospective contestants had to devise a menu for £10, costing out ingredients to the penny.
This was in the days before the show’s format was altered, and David says he was in the blue kitchen on the year he got through to the televised finals – and has the apron to prove it.
For the finals, David produced a darne of roast monkfish with salmon mousseline on a bed of couscous with a red pepper dressing and a dessert of Bailey’s ice cream cheese cake with a mineola sauce.
David was undone when judge Gary Rhodes claimed he could taste what he called “the graininess of the gelatine”. However, David says: “It was a wind up because I’d used leaf gelatine.”
Undaunted, David has continued to develop his skills, making celebration cakes and occasional wedding and Christmas cakes and has taught himself sugar craft.