Food to dye for!

Simon Wood: through to next round

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HIS beetroot and chocolate ice cream might not have had the judges rooting for him, but Simon Wood’s other delectable dishes have seen him rise to the “MasterChef” quarter-final challenge.

Simon (38), from Chadderton, now faces knockout week” on April 8 in the BBC’s culinary competition.

Simon’s chicken and chorizo tortellini was described as “delicious and exciting” and was co-host Gregg Wallace’s dish of the day.

He faced cooking for previous MasterChef contestants, producing a harrissa rack of lamb with Moroccan sweet potato almandine, and chocolate souffle with minted Chantilly cream.

“The pressure of cooking for people you want to impress - not to mention I dyed John Torode’s tongue green - made it an eventful 75 minutes for sure!” said the father-of-four. MasterChef judge Torode’s tongue recolouring came about when he tasted Simon’s tube of green food colour.

His final hurdle was to impress Independent food critic Tracey MacLeod by interpreting her brief to create a vegetable-based dish.

Simon went further and included vegetables in his dessert - but his beetroot and chocolate dish left the judges unconvinced.

“The inspiration for the ice cream was 70 per cent from a cake recipe, 10 per cent point of difference and 20 per cent temporary insanity,” admitted Simon. “It was tasty, but a nice frozen yoghurt would have worked much better.”