Leeds chef Jono Hawthorne makes it to Masterchef: The Professionals semi-finals by putting ants in the dessert

Jono Hawthorne is the head chef at award-winning restaurant Vice and Virtue and has stunned judges and restaurant critics on this year's show so far with hay custard, dessert served in a bone marrow, ants and posh fish and chips.

He will next be on our screens on December 8 as the semi-final rounds are aired on the BBC and this weekend was back in the kitchen at Vice preparing tasting course menus for people to eat at home while we are in the second coronavirus lockdown.

He spoke to the Yorkshire Evening Post about how he comes up with dishes that have even the mouths of Michelin-starred chefs watering.

He said: "I put them on the back foot, I am like an enigma, they don't know where to put me. They know I am good at cooking but I do this crazy stuff that tastes delicious. I am doing everything they ask but I am doing it the wrong way but getting the same result."

Hawthorne went onto the show saying he wouldn't play by the rules and has not even watched an episode of Masterchef, that first aired in 1990, and is now hosted in 58 territories and has been viewed by 300m people over the years.

He isn't playing by the rules with the dishes he has served up so far. They include fig leaf crumble with Yorkshire rhubard, hay custard and the shock ingredient - wood ants; or creme brulee with a wild fruit salad and elderflower vinegar served in a bone marrow.

Is he going for the shock factor? "Not really, no", he says. "That is what is happening but it is not about shock factor. It make sense to me."

He explains: "It is just taste, the ideas come through tasting stuff. There is a basic concept, if you have an ingredient that is really sweet or bitter you need to counteract it with something sharp or sweet. It is not based on the actual ingredient, it is the principle of taste.

"If you have a banana you need something sharp to go with that, I would go with chocolate and capers. It is not to mask but to go with. That shocked some people with the ants but they are citrus and that is an easy ingredient to use because lemon goes on everything. You could put them on a jacket potato with butter and absolutely love it but it is the visual aspect of it. I will give you the flavours and texture or whatever."

He applied for the show last year and was asked to go to London when lockdown was eased in July. He also had to send a CV, menus and an application then have another interview in Manchester before filming for the show even started.

Hawthorne added: "It is such a process just to get to where we are now. I wanted to do it for my son, my family and have a better life for them and to make Leeds proud. That is what this city is all about and just needs people, like me, that are proud of where they come from."

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