HIPPING Hall head chef Oli Martin wowed judges on MasterChef: The Professionals last night with his honey parfait dessert.

In tonight's episode viewers will find out if the 30-year-old has earned a place in tomorrow's (Thursday) grand final of the BBC Two culinary contest.

Oli has been head chef at the hotel at Cowan Bridge, near Kirkby Lonsdale, for four years. He is originally from Lytham.

In yesterday evening's episode he impressed a room-full of his culinary idols with a dessert of fermented spruce honey parfait, apple pine syrup, an apple skin tuile, pine yoghurt foam, honeycomb and compressed apple cubes.

Tonight's penultimate episode will see Oli and the other three remaining chefs given 90 minutes to cook "a single exceptional and evocative dish which draws inspiration from a place that is special to them". One finalist will then be sent home.

Last night's instalment saw each of the four chefs take charge of one of four courses, served to a gathering of chefs with Michelin stars between them.

Gordon Ramsay's group executive development chef, James Petrie, was among the luminaries who joined the Chef's Table judging round. Praising the apple peel crackling created by Oli during his five hours in the kitchen, James told him: "I'll probably nick that idea from you and use it myself."

Chef Kenny Atkinson, of Newcastle's House of Tides, told Oli he "wouldn't have batted an eyelid" if the parfait had been served from a one or two Michelin star kitchen. "It was my dish of the day," he said.

Another judge praised the 30-year-old for having "stamped" his personality "all over that dessert", describing it as "visually amazing".

Meanwhile, MasterChef judges Monica Galetti and Michelin-starred chef Marcus Wareing praised the pudding's flavours of pine and caramelised toffee apple.

The final episode of MasterChef: The Professionals is on BBC Two tomorrow at 8pm (Thursday, December 20), when the overall winner will be crowned.