Sarah Rankin from Kinross bowed out of the 2022 MasterChef cooking competition at the semi-final stage last night.
The Inverness-born amateur chef has battled for weeks for a place in the final and did everything she could to impress judges John Torode and Gregg Wallace in the penultimate show’s cook-off.
At the start of last night’s episode the mum-of-two said failure was “not an option”.
She and her remaining three contestants had one hour and 45 minutes to create their interpretation of a “classic dish”.
Being Scottish born and bred, Sarah opted for her twist on haggis, neeps and tatties.
She put forward a cannon of lamb, deep fried haggis wrapped in feuille de brick pastry, potato fondant, crispy kale, neep puree, tattie scone, puffed pearl barley, pickled shallot shells, roasted onion puree and a whisky sauce.
She told the judges: “My classic dish is haggis, neeps and tatties.
“Traditionally, it doesn’t tend to look very fine dining so I want to kind of eleate it a little bit, and this one really makes me happy.”
Sadly her lamb turned out undercooked for Gregg, leaving her out of the next round with celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay.
John was happy with his lamb, but it was the tattie scone on his plate, which turned out to be burnt, that let Sarah down.
Delivering the bad news, judge Gregg Wallace said: “You have had an amazing competition, you really have, incredible.”
Afterwards Sarah said: “Yeah, I’m devastated. It has been really special.
“It’s been a life-changing experience. I’ll just miss the buzz of it all.
“I’d say to anyone: take the chance because absolutely it’s worth it.”
The three finalists will battle it out to win the title of MasterChef 2022 tonight on BBC One at 8pm.
