MASTERCHEF hopeful Hope Pointing learnt her skills at her mother - and father’s - apron strings.

The 20-year-old from Eype was thrilled to make it through to the quarter finals and despite her age coped with the pressures of cooking for past finalists and severe critic Jay Raynor.

In fact her overall experience, knowledge and response to pressure were praised by presenters John Torode and Gregg Wallace.

Former Charmouth Primary School pupil Hope, whose family own Wood Farm Caravan Park in Charmouth, said: “I thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience, it was great.”

Hope is studying food science at Reading University and was the youngest contestant and only applied on a whim but is glad she did, she said.

Mum Jane Bremner said: “We are so proud of her her.

“Both myself and her dad Ian are very keen cooks. I am a more ‘throw everything in one pot’ sort of cook but her dad is a very particular and fastidious cook so she is a combination of the two and she has been brought up around food.”

In fact it’s in Hope’s blood as her mum’s family were also in catering Jane said: “My dad went to Westminster catering college and did chefing for a short period of time. Food has always been important in our family.

“She is doing food and nutrition at university and enjoying all that as well.”

“I don’t know that she actually wants to be a chef, she is thinking more along the lines of food journalism or food stylist.

“She is about to a placement year and she is doing that at Olives et al which is based at Sturminster Newton so she is looking forward to that side of the world of food.

“She is just dipping her toe into every part of the food industry that she can think of.”

Although the family knew the outcome of Hope’s Masterchef bid because filming was back in November it was still nerve-wracking to watch on Friday.

Jane said: “Obviously we knew how many days she did the filming for and she was sworn to secrecy and she was only allowed to tell very few people. We even had to keep it secret from her granny.

“But we hadn’t seen any of the footage and it was still quite a nervous hour to watch the programme.

“She came across really well, I was really proud of her.”

Hope was one of 40 amateur cooks to make it through to the heats and to get to the quarter final she had to complete three challenges - a calling card dish, the invention test and cooking their own two courses for John and Gregg, but three MasterChef champions and finalists.

The best three cooks went through to Friday’s quarter final for the critic’s test. Each critic chose a central ingredient.

Jay Rayner asked for dishes with duck breast. Hope served hers pan-fried with crispy parsnips and blackberry sauce but sadly wasn’t picked to go on to the semi finals.