For a country in lockdown, this year’s MasterChef has provided a much-needed distraction.

After weeks in which blue soup, Claire Fyfe’s exit and Gregg Wallace’s facial expressions have become national talking points, the ostensibly unflappable Thomas Frake, hailed by the judges – Wallace and John Torode – for cooking “proper old-fashioned hearty grub”, emerged victorious. And that seems to reflect what an anxious nation craves right now.

Although the BBC One show’s final was filmed in December, before Covid-19 appeared in the UK, the 32-year-old’s hit parade of classic British dishes given a deft makeover provided comforting familiarity.

“The dishes I do reflect the national mood and interest,” Frake acknowledged. “They’re not too out there. These are tried and tested combinations that people love to eat but just amplified in flavour and refined.”

The financial professional’s winning menu featuring a monkfish scampi starter, an ox cheek braised in porter beer main course and a salted caramel custard tart were homages to British cooking and a nod to Frake’s upbringing in east London, something that became more important as he progressed through the competition.

Frake had applied the previous year when, inspired by a trip to Spain, he cooked a chicken and chorizo dish but failed to make it beyond the audition stage.

This time around, he armed himself with a back story that the programme’s makers bought into.

“The research team find out a bit more about you, what your passions are, why you want to go on Masterchef. You have to take a prepared dish, so this year I took pie and mash. That was my calling card – ‘Look this is the dish I grew up eating, I’ve elevated it a bit’. I think they agreed, and that was the reason I went on to the show.”

Staying true to his East End roots allowed Frake to chart a clear course when things got choppy.

“It was very easy for John and Gregg and for members of the public to understand who I was as a cook and what I was doing,” he said. “People got to know my style pretty quickly. That’s important.

The hosts of BBC One’s MasterChef, John Torode (left) and Gregg Wallace. Photograph: BBC/PA

“The restaurant trade isn’t about cooking up what you fancy eating at home: there is branding, a story and a narrative that goes into being a restaurateur, and you’ve got to have that in your mind when going into the competition. I wanted people to understand what I was trying to do. Where you are from – I was drawing on that for inspiration. I was trying not to jump around cuisines too much.”

Luck played a part. A venison dish was going to be accompanied by a barley stew but at the last minute he ditched it for the now celebrated bubble and squeak bonbon.

And in the final, he nearly didn’t get his pudding out. “I managed to salvage enough of my salt caramel custard tart to put out on a plate, and while it didn’t look exactly how I wanted it to look, the flavour was there, and John and Gregg got what I was trying to achieve.”

At the time, Frake believed the slip-up had cost him the trophy. “I thought I’m just going to enjoy the rest of the experience while I’m there … there’s genuinely no chance I’m going to win now.”

Apparently unfazed by the competition, he said the true stress came off-camera. “When you get the brief, you only have a few days to come up with a dish and submit your recipe. It could take me maybe three restless nights trying to dream up ideas.”

A case in point was his boozy chocolate fondant that saw him through the semi-final. “Probably for 90% of the time, that dish was going to be some version of an apple pie but I couldn’t make it work in my head and elevate it to what I wanted to do.”

So Frake took a huge gamble by opting to produce a chocolate fondant, the dish on which the dreams of so many MasterChef contestants have been smashed to smithereens.

“I thought, how can I elevate this? I’ll bring the pub to it, and brought in the flavours of porter beer and malt whiskey.”

Unsurprisingly, given his appreciation of pubs and booze, Frake cites Keith Floyd as an early inspiration, along with Rick Stein and Tom Kerridge. He hopes to emulate Kerridge and run his own gastropub, once he has learned the ropes elsewhere.

Frake also intends to cook his winning menu for friends and family and get his hands on his trophy, which is still in storage.

For now, cooking in a lockdown has become a new version of the invention test. “I’m kind of relishing the whole problem/solution approach, looking at what’s in the cupboard or in the bag and coming up with a dish.”











































































