Sedbergh chef misses out on finals on The Great British menu

Nina Matsunaga, chef and co-owner of The Black Bull, was competing on The Great British Menu on BBC Two this week against other talented individuals from the northwest.

On Tuesday, she was able to make it past the first round, but Wednesday's episode proved to be one hurdle too high in the end.

Read more: Sedbergh chef competes on BBC's Great British Menu | The Westmorland Gazette

"I think I'm just trying to hold my own against these two heavyweights," Nina began the episode by saying and for good reason.

Out of the three competitors on Wednesday, Nina was the only newcomer to the show, with the two eventual victors having previously tried their luck in years gone by.

The challenges revolved the staples of mains and desserts, with an ode to the Olympics or the Paralympics.

Nina's 'BMX' starter earned rave reviews (Image: BBC)

Nina started off by presenting her dish, 'BMX', a combination of beef, mushrooms and XO, a spicy seafood sauce originating from Hong Kong.

Rating her attempt, her fellow competitors described the offering as 'unreal', 'beautiful' and 'incredible'.

Whilst she scored herself with a modest six, head judge Michael O'Hare gave the main an eight, though this was below her rival's results of nine and ten.

For the pre-dessert, a non-scoring round, Nina pushed herself to construct a white chocolate golf ball served on calamansi ice scrapes, which proved to be the judge's favourite.

Nina scored a hole in one with her pre-dessert (Image: BBC)

Heading into the final round behind her competitors following Tuesday's show, Nina needed a big swing in fortunes to have any chance of progressing.

She dedicated the dish to the Lake District, in which Walter Parry Haskett Smith invented modern rock climbing.

Inspired by a Mont Blanc dessert, Nina combined gingerbread with alcohol-soaked prunes, chestnuts and rum in a last minute bid to make it to Thursday's episode.

The dessert round was the sticking point in the end for Nina (Image: BBC)

Having admitted that desserts were not her strong point, that proved to be a case, with her attempt scoring just four, which was enough to send Nina home.