“As Masterchef entered its final week, the series won its highest ratings so far, with 4.3 million viewers – 17 per cent of the national TV audience – watching,” reported the Daily Mail at the end of the last series.

An unexpectedly huge hit, Masterchef now spawns another sprightly spin-off.

The amateurs are gone, replaced by young professional chefs who are desperate for the big time.

This keen cadre of cooks compete to create “high-end Michelin food”, the fancy nosh most of us only see in restaurants where the boss is treating us on expenses.

Lydia Slater of the Sunday Times described regular Masterchef judge Gregg Wallace as a host with, “a repertoire of appreciative grunts and gasps whenever he gets to sink his teeth into a gooey pudding.”

A new twist in Masterchef: The Professionals is Michelin star chef Michel Roux Jr (pictured above), who now joins Wallace to add a vital touch of sophistication and refinement.

A series of intense culinary challenges will see 36 qualified chefs fighting it out, and only three will make it to the final where, under the unforgiving eye of real Michelin inspectors, they must either cope with the heat or get out of the kitchen.

The final trio will cook dinner for five of the most influential restaurateurs in Britain and some of Europe’s best chefs, including Alain Roux and Pierre Gagnaire.

“What has been particularly refreshing about Masterchef is how far it diverges from today’s reality TV formula,” said Lydia Slater. “Even though it is a sudden-death show… nobody is humiliated or screamed at.”

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Tags: BBC, cookery, Freeview, Masterchef, Masterchef: The Professionals, reviews