"Winning Mary Berry over was difficult" admits BBC cooking show star Dipa
"Winning Mary Berry over was very difficult - the hardest thing I've had to do so far."
Wolverhampton mother Dipa Jakhu has sailed through to the quarter finals of new BBC show Britain's Best Home Cook - and tonight she will be giving all she's got to prove she is worthy of a space in the semi-finals next week.
The 44-year-old civil servant said she is loving her time on the show, but revealed how difficult it was to win over queen of the kitchen Mary Berry.
Dipa, who works in the city centre, said: "When Chris [one of the judges] said he loved my roast chicken, it was the best compliment I've had so far. He's in my good books. He even said he would take some of the elements he saw in my dish home with him, and that meant a lot."
However, the mother-of-three said her biggest challenge so far was getting former Great British Bake Off judge Mary Berry to fall in love with her dishes.
She added: "Mary is not keen on spices, she's not a spicy person. So one time I just created this aubergine dish as the second challenge. I'd never made it before, I just sort of made it up as I went along, I didn't really know what I was doing.
"But Mary said it was warming and 'just the dish you'd want to come home to' and that made me so happy. Winning Mary over was very difficult - the hardest thing I've had to do so far."
When asked how she felt to have made it to the quarter finals of the BBC One cooking programme, Dipa said she could not believe it.
"I never imagined I'd get into the competition, let alone the quarter final," she said.
"I never felt good enough and was always a bit intimidated by the other cooks. It's an amazing feeling."
The quarter final of Britain's Best Home Cook is on BBC One tonight at 8pm.
The series is being judged by Bake Off star Mary Berry, Chris Bavin of Eat Well For Less, and head chef at top London restaurant The Duck and Waffle Dan Doherty. It is fronted by Strictly Come Dancing presenter Claudia Winkleman.
