AN ambitious chef from East Lancashire is in the pot to win BBC2’s Masterchef: The Professionals after impressing a culinary legend.

Simon Salt, 26, is through to the quarter-finals of the national contest after impressing double Michelin-starred chef Michel Roux Jr in a heat watched by millions of viewers across the country.

But it has not been the easiest year for the young chef who, in August, was given a 12-month community order and £1,200 fine, after admitting careless driving.

This followed a car chase in which he led police for miles before being stopped by a ‘stinger’ on the M6.

The 2008 North West Young Chef of the Year said he had made a ‘silly mistake’ and vowed to move ‘onwards and upwards’ in his quest to reach the very top of the culinary profession.

Simon, of Copster Hill Close, Guide, Blackburn, showed enough skill when French trimming and cooking a rack of lamb to convince Roux Jr’s sous chef Monica Galetti, and dining expert Gregg Wallace, to allow him the honour of cooking for the Michelin-starred chef.

He then conquered his nerves to produce a billy-bi, or classic mussel soup, served with breaded mussels, leeks and carrots.

Roux Jr praised Simon for producing perfectly-cooked mussels, before sending him through to the quarter-finals.

The programme was filmed in March and Simon is tight-lipped about whether he impressed enough to make it to the semi-finals.

But the former pupil of St Christopher’s CE High School, Accrington, described the experience as ‘amazing’.

He said: “Money can’t buy what I got from the competition and I fetched a lot away from it.

“The whole experience was totally different to what I expected.

“There was more pressure with people putting cameras in your face and telling you where to go, and what to do.”

Simon, who grew up in Oswaldtwistle, studied catering at Accrington and Rossendale College, and learned his trade under Nigel Haworth, Lisa Allen and Warwick Dodds, at the Michelin-starred Northcote Manor.

His training has included spells at The Feilden Arms and Stanley House Hotel, Mellor Brook, Nigel Smith at Ribby Hall, Wrea Green, and the Freemasons Arms, Wiswell.

And he has worked in Michelin-starred establishments in Wales and Spain.

He is now back at Ribby Hall, working under renowned young chef Andrew Birch.