A Porthleven-based chef has finally reached the finals of a BBC competition on his fourth attempt after wowing with an impressive petit four dessert.

Jude Kereama, who runs Kota and Kota Kai in Porthleven, made the daring decision to switch out his original plans for the evening and attempt a dessert resembling Goonhilly Earth Station.

The gamble paid off and Jude was put through to the final banquet stage of the competition, in which the finalists each cook one course of a four-course banquet attended by special guests.

When talking about why he chose Goonhilly Earth Station, Jude told The Packet: "The theme of The Great British Menu this year is invention and innovation, so I really wanted to showcase Cornwall.

"It's my adopted home, so I wanted to celebrate the people and the food.

"It's so inspiring, Goonhilly Earth Station, it's rather impressive, the history of it all, so I wanted to celebrate what Goonhilly does, what it's done in the past and what it does now.

"It's kind of like a guardian of Earth really, overlooking and collecting data on Earth, it's quite incredible what they do up there and the amount of data that's produced up there.

"It's become helpful to us, especially with our wanting to be as environmentally safe and careful as possible, and Goonhilly works towards that.

"I had an hour and a half to do that dessert, and so that's were the pressure is put on.

"The tempering was fine but the chocolate itself came out a bit thick.

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"It was very annoying as, it looked beautiful, but you want things to be perfect when you're out there and you're up against the best of the best."

Jude also explained how it had been his wife, Jane, who had initially encouraged him to go on the show in the first place.

Sadly, Jane passed away in 2019 at the age of 46 after battling cancer.

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However, after this tremendous loss, Jude has picked himself up and dedicated his progression to his late wife.

"It just means the world, I dedicate it to my wife, I know exactly what she would have wanted me to do.

"I felt the time was right and that maybe I'd healed enough to go out and do something in her honour.

"So yeah, I'm absolutely over the moon to finally get there, and it's for my son as well, to inspire him.

"It's a symbol for us that life goes on, and that we're gunna fight for everything that you want in life and just carry on soldiering on, which can be tough considering what we've gone through.

"Jane just loved me being on there, she was so proud of me going on Great British Menu, in fact she forced me to go on there, so now I can retire happily.

You can catch the finale of the Great British Menu tonight (Friday 21) on BBC2 at 8pm.