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Angela's love of food came from an early age, but it is fair to say that even though her parents ran a successful restaurant and hotel in Somerton, Somerset, Angela didn't really cook until after Uni - she once phoned her Mum from her student flat asking how long a chicken would take to cook. 'An hour and fifteen minutes darling' was the answer - to which Angela replied, 'what if it's frozen!?'

From there on in, Angela made it her mission to learn how to cook, learning from her parents and devouring cook book after cook book. Having been a huge fan of cooking shows, including the likes of Keith Floyd and Rick Stein, it was always Masterchef that was her number one show - from the Lloyd Grossman days, right through to today with Gregg and John.

angela langford reached the finals of 2014 Masterchef

In the late Spring of 2013, Angela's partner found out that the application forms for the next series were open. Angela would have loved to enter, but her Mum was sick and she didn't want to spend time away, in order to look after her. Sadly, her Mum passed away in early September and, amongst the grief and anguish, her partner mentioned that the applications were about to close and how entering for her Mum would be a fitting tribute.

That evening, they filled out the form, hitting send and thinking nothing more of it. The next day, to Angela's surprise, she had a call from the TV people asking for an interview. This then led to a face to face interview on camera, where Angela had to cook a dish for the TV production team (she made goose liver pate with bacon brioche).

A few weeks later, she got the call that she would be on the telly!

Being on the show was a surreal experience for Angela, being an avid fan of the show. The studio, the cameras, John and Gregg were overwhelming to start with, but Angela grew throughout the show, cooking for Charles Campion (who loved her crab dish), to Marcus Wareing (who called her dish a dogs dinner!), to cooking with some of her food heroes - Bruno Loubet, John Campbell and Tom Kerridge.

The highlight of the show for Angela was probably walking on the set of Eastenders - an iconic venue and Angela being a huge fan, even more surreal than being in the Masterchef kitchen! So in the middle of Albert Square, Angela and her fellow contestants teamed up to cook the cast and crew lunch, in freezing conditions with no help at all from anyone else. But she loved it!

Angela Langford cooked on the set of Eastenders with her fellow Masterchef contestants


Angela won through the rounds, eventually making Finals Week - a huge achievement considering she thought she had no chance even making the show, let alone doing well.

But doing well she did, losing out on a last day place in the Final having been in a cook-off with the eventual winner, Ping Coombes.

Angela made so many memories, but more importantly made best friends from the show - and her love of cooking continues not only in her food festival appearances, or her pop-up restaurant here in Pembrokeshire, or her TV appearances on the BBC (she's since been a guest judge on the show, as well as BBC Children In Need and BBC Breakfast) - but in her skincare.

She hopes that she can help you find your recipe for great skin.