About the show

Discerning judges John Torode and Gregg Wallace are back to put more undiscovered chefs through a series of increasingly difficult tasks in this iconic amateur cooking show. Out of thousands of applicants, from around the UK, 136 have been chosen to go through to the heats. There are six contestants in each heat and Series 6 throws up its fair share of characters and experimental cooks. Viewers witness the highs and lows of their favourites as the contest progresses. It’s an enormous learning curve and only the truly extraordinary will survive.

As usual, the heats consist of the infamous Invention Test (60 minutes to cook one exceptional dish from a mystery list of ingredients), the Pressure Test (working a busy lunch service at a top London restaurant) and the Final Test (creating a two-course meal in an hour). The contestants may think they have performed well but watching and waiting for John and Gregg’s judgement is an excruciating experience.

Usually, only one person from each heat is selected to go through to the quarter-finals but the standard of cooks is higher than ever, so the judges bend the rules in Series 6. In one heat, no-one is selected, whilst two go through in another. Added twists include the come-back contestants in Week 6 facing high-pressure challenges, including a Palate Test (recognising ingredients from a dish cooked by chef John Torode) as well as some brutal Skills Tests in the quarter-finals.

The first semi eliminates two more contestants, leaving just six to vie for a place in the finals. The remaining three semis and finals push them to the limit. We find them cooking for the Women’s Institute; preparing a banquet at the Tower of London; cooking for a Maharajah, during a gruelling three-day challenge in the Rajasthan Desert in India; running their own restaurant in the UK; and cooking for one of the world’s greatest living chefs, Alain Ducasse.

By the final episode, only three contestants remain to complete the last three tasks, including a busy lunch service at three of Europe’s finest three Michelin-starred restaurants in France, Italy and Holland. The talent this year is phenomenal and deciding the winner is almost as tough as the competition itself, but the fusion food of 34-year-old Dhruv Baker is so impressive, he is crowned MasterChef Champion 2010.