Last updated 16:19, Tuesday, 05 February 2008

THIS week I have been glued to BBC2’s Masterchef. I am a great fan of the culinary competition and I love to see the dishes which the competitors invent and present to the judges.

Some of them look absolutely delicious, some are less than inventive and others I wouldn’t fancy at all - like the pork chop with chocolate sauce which one competitor produced.

It looked disgusting, but apparently didn’t taste too bad - and the strange combination certainly got its creator noticed.

All the entrants are fantastically confident. Just like the contestants on Pop Idol, they are all convinced that they have what it takes to be the winner (no point being there if they don’t) and most are ambitious enough to want to open their own restaurant - although after the round in which they have to work flat out in the kitchen of a real restaurant and get shouted at by the boss chef as they overcook the monkfish, no doubt some of them change their minds.

I just love the overblown way in which they describe their dishes. Listen to Tristan, 28, a banker who just loves to host dinner parties for friends and who would eventually, you’ve guessed it, like to leave his job and open his own restaurant.

“Today,” says Tristan, sweat staining his smart striped shirt, “I’ve cooked pan-fried strips of organic Scottish beef on a bed of carrot and courgette ribbons, with oven-roasted potato wedges drizzled with olive oil and served with a light vegetable and wine jus.”

What this dazzling dish is, of course, is steak and chips with some embellishments.

Why do television chefs talk about things being pan fried or oven roasted? What else are you supposed to fry and roast in? A washing up bowl? A hamster cage perhaps? The only surprise is that they don’t offer something that has been grill-grilled.

And tonight I am cooking diced fell-bred lamb, gently simmered in a rustic pot with stock, onions and slices of organic black pudding, topped with crispy potatoes and served with homemade pickled red cabbage.

I love a good tatie pot.