An East Belfast lunch bar owner who got through to the quarter-final of MasterChef: The Professionals has told all on his nerve-racking first heat.
35-year-old Jonny McCreery, who is originally from Dundonald, appeared on our screens for the first time this week.
The father-of-three owns Greenway 9 in Castlereagh with wife Megan - with the pair having moved premises in June to expand their business to a 60-seater restaurant.
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He has told how supportive the East Belfast and wider Northern Ireland community has been since his first appearance on the show on Thursday night.
Jonny told Be how he got involved in cooking and why he applied for the show.
He said: "I have always had an interest from a young age [in cooking] which is strange because I am the only chef in my family. I took it upon myself to get into the catering industry and I have 21 years experience now.
"Myself and my wife opened Greenway 9 two weeks before lockdown... It has been a mad few years and we were up for awards for six months being open and now we've the new place.
"When I got accepted for MasterChef, we were in the process of moving to where we are now. We sort of outgrew where we were and needed a bigger base to operate. From then we've been so busy."
He added: "[Applying] was a long process, it was through selection and obviously a lot of people applied for it, but I just took the off chance. I missed last year's deadline and I just thought to myself, we have our own shop, it's time to get my name out there and promote my business instead of working for someone else and promoting their business.
"I am 35 now and have three kids so it's time to concentrate on my career and building mine and my wife's business. She works full time as well, she was working, moving businesses and supporting me through MasterChef whilst six months pregnant."
Jonny explained how nervous he was during the first heat.
"See when you walk in and see Marcus and Gregg sitting there for the skills test, I have never felt pressure like it in my life.
"Obviously all eyes are on you and it's just such a surreal experience. I watched every single season and walking into that kitchen and seeing the MasterChef sign on the wall, it's surreal. I'm glad I done it.
"It is very, very stressful. There was good feedback last night [Thursday]. When I was on the show I took all the negative comments and sort of missed the positive comments. I was nervous all day yesterday in the build-up," he said.
The East Belfast man said "it took a wee while to sink in" that he had been selected to go through to the quarter-final.
"There was a wee tear in my eye so there was," Jonny told.
The chef also gives back to the local community in East Belfast.
"We live in Clonduff and a youth leader came into the shop and on the off chance asked would we do a careers thing with the youngsters and teenage boys.
"I done a six-week cooking course a Friday night. They loved it and I was talking to a couple of them the other night. One of them is in fourth year in school and he's actually in one day a week at catering college. He is actually following on from that.
"It's nice to hear back that you helped someone. They didn't know what they wanted to do, still only young [and] got themselves into cooking. That's the job done really," he said.
Jonny said the community has been "absolutely fantastic" in supporting him.
He explained: "People I haven't spoke to in years, school teachers... It's nice to see everyone is proud of you. East Belfast is very supportive anyway, but even broader Belfast, Northern Ireland, the comments... The feedback has been amazing and sort of makes you relax a bit and enjoy watching the show.
"I am definitely glad I applied.
"The shop has been absolutely mental, so so busy which was the aim at the start to get this.
"There are a few wee things we have in the pipeline for the New Year for the shop which shall be interesting."
MasterChef: The Professionals, Quarter Final is on tonight, 8pm on BBC One and iPlayer and the series continues next week, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
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