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Out of the thousands who applied, 40 hopeful amateur cooks have made it through to compete over four weeks of heats.

The contestants get their first chance to win an apron by cooking their signature dish – something that tells judges John Torode and Gregg Wallace who they are as a cook and how good they can become. After tasting all five plates, John and Gregg pick their two favourite dishes, with those two cooks earning a coveted MasterChef apron and a place in the next round.

The remaining three contestants then cook off in a new test – the Favourite Ingredient Challenge. Gifted with their chosen favourite ingredient, they must create one exceptional dish that showcases it. The stakes are high as one cook will be sent home, their MasterChef dream over.

One more challenge stands in the way of the four remaining cooks and a quarter-final place. They must cook two courses that will excite not just John and Gregg, but also last year’s MasterChef champion Thomas Frake and 2014 champion Ping Coombes.

In a competition where only the food matters, and with just two quarter-final places up for grabs, these amateurs will need to be good to survive, taking another step towards being crowned MasterChef champion 2021.