A FORMER waitress is cooking up a storm on national TV after making it through to the latter stages of this year's MasterChef competition.

Laura Gowthorpe, who was brought up in the Ribble Valley, was selected to take part in the hit BBC One show out of hundreds of applicants and now has the chance to put together a recipe for success.

The 29-year-old former Clitheroe Royal Grammar School student has made it through five gruelling weeks and the nation will find out on Monday whether she has what it takes to make it through to the grand final.

Originally from Mellor, Laura now lives in Kentish Town, London, and is the head of marketing at a recruitment and communications agency.

Before she moved away from East Lancashire to study marketing at Newcastle University she worked at The Millstone At Mellor and The Three Fishes in Mitton as a waitress.

Whatever the outcome of the show, Laura, who has previously appeared on an episode of The Price if Right in 2006, said that she will keep cooking as a hobby.

She said: "I am a big fan of the show and I always said that if I ever moved to London that I would apply to be part of the show.

"It's a surreal experience being on and I'm really surprised that I have made it so far.

"The judges are great and the film crew are all really nice.

"The time pressure and stress that you see on the TV is real and sometimes hard to deal with."