MasterChef: The Professionals - Finals Week

It's finals week for the young professional chefs and the thirty-six chefs who set out with high hopes have been whittled down first to six and now to the final three chefs.

Earlier in finals week the six semi-finalists each went head-to-head with one other chef, first cooking for the busy lunch service at a Michelin starred restaurant under the watchful eye of its resident chef - Michael Caines at Gidleigh Park, John Campbell at Vineyard, and Claude Bosi at Hibiscus - then recreating the restaurant's signature dish for its creator, and finally returning to the MasterChef kitchens to try and produce the best plate of food they had ever cooked in their lives. A place in the final depended on it.

On day one of the final Murray, Leon and Derek will face two challenges. First they must create an amuse bouche and petit fours, and then they must cook for five top restaurateurs.

On the second day of the final the task is even more daunting - first they will be cooking for thirty of the best chefs in Europe, not to mention three former Michelin inspectors for good measure. After that returning to the MasterChef kitchen to cook their best three course meal should be a doddle!

Whoever wins the MasterChef: Professional crown none of these young chefs could be said to have lost, and I have no doubt that after proving their skills in this competition more than a few of them will find themselves taken on to be trained at the sort of Michelin standard restaurant they aspire to. All of them showed enormous commitment to their chosen career path along with the sort of skills that we mere mortals can only dream of. These are the chefs of the future, and if this is the cream of the crop of young chefs then the future looks bright for British cuisine.

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