A Wiltshire chef will appear on Thursday's episode of MasterChef: The Professionals on BBC1.

Mo Farhan, 32, head chef at The Horse and Groom in Malmesbury, stars in the second heat of the week which will be aired this evening, alongside three other determined chefs wanting to make the journey to the MasterChef kitchen and fight for the coveted title.

The Swindon-born man has trained under some of the best chefs in Wiltshire, ranging from pubs, bars and hotels, but has decided now is the time to pit his wits against some of the best chefs in the country.

Despite turning cooking into his career, Mo admits he fell into the profession by accident.

Speaking about how he got into the business, he said: “A friend had a job in a hotel so I went to see him one day and the kitchen porter hadn’t turned up so that was my first day. I almost got into it accidentally and gradually moved over into cooking.

“What I love most about it is the freedom you have with ingredients and the endless possibilities. I’d say my style of cooking is traditional but with a twist - I like few ingredients, but big flavours

“The highlight of my career has definitely got to be getting my first Head Chef position. It was a lot of hard work and training, but I got there in the end and have the best team I could have asked for.”

“I wanted to take part in the competition to push myself out of my comfort zone, which I definitely have!”

With the UK’s most revered cooking programme back for its 15th series, 32 ambitious chefs from across the country will battle to become the 2022 champion.

In this evening’s episode, the chefs face two challenges to test their basic knowledge, skills, flair and imagination, but the pressure will be on with only the best two chefs remaining in the competition.

First up, they have the skills test which is known as one of the competition’s most terrifying rounds. The first two chefs are set a butchery challenge by Anna Haugh while the others compete in Marcus Wareing’s challenge involving a whole crab.

In the second challenge, all four chefs must wow the judges with their own Signature Menu showcasing their style and technique.