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![\"Shine](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/6d4ec6a0-9a91-11f0-89b7-b3d1f3761007.jpg.webp.webp\")
Shine TV\/BBC<\/p>\nLewis AdamsEssex and<\/p>\n
Ben FryerBBC Essex<\/p>\n
Shine TV\/BBC<\/p>\n
Sophie Segrue grew up watching MasterChef with her family in Basildon<\/p>\n
A MasterChef finalist admitted she finally decided to enter the competition after “a few glasses” of wine.<\/p>\n
Sophie Segrue, who grew up watching the show at home in Basildon, Essex, is now among the three chefs battling it out in Friday’s grand final on BBC One.<\/p>\n
The 25-year-old vegetarian was one of 60 cooks who started the process, but went on to star for her plant-based dishes.<\/p>\n
“Cooking is like my love language, so you know you’re loved by me if I cook food for you,” she told BBC Essex.<\/p>\n
Miss Segrue was inspired to apply for the show by her late father, who she used to watch it with.<\/p>\n
“It was one of those things where I’d go ‘please can I stay up and watch?’ and they’d be like ‘oh fine’,” she said.<\/p>\n
“They probably had no idea where it was going to lead me.”<\/p>\n
But the chef admitted her application was not just encouraged by nostalgia.<\/p>\n
“I’ve always watched MasterChef sat on a sofa with a glass of wine in my armchair, shouting at my TV saying ‘don’t do that, do this’,” she added.<\/p>\n
“I was like, maybe I should apply – probably a few glasses deep at this point. I put an application in, and I really, really didn’t expect to hear back. <\/p>\n
“Lo and behold, I actually got on the show.”<\/p>\n
![\"Anna](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/f44ef3b0-8ccb-11f0-aff0-010617e09ce9.jpg.webp.webp\")
<\/p>\n
Grace Dent and chef Anna Haugh were announced as the show’s new hosts in September<\/p>\n
Miss Segrue has stood out for her vegetarian dishes, having stopped eating meat almost 10 years ago.<\/p>\n
She said it had been surreal to cook in the MasterChef kitchen after a childhood of watching it on TV.<\/p>\n
“It feels like you’re in a dream, it does not feel real,” said the cook, who now lives in London. <\/p>\n
“When you’re in there, it’s all systems go. You never know what can happen in the kitchen. <\/p>\n
“One minute you can have the perfect cook, but it only takes one tiny thing to go wrong, and that can be the end of your competition.”<\/p>\n
The MasterChef final airs on BBC One at 20:00 BST on Friday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lewis AdamsEssex and Ben FryerBBC Essex Shine TV\/BBC Sophie Segrue grew up watching MasterChef with her family in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":170510,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[64,63,134,427],"class_list":{"0":"post-170509","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170509\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/170510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}