STAFF at the five-star Lucknam Park Hotel & Spa near Chippenham have told how proud they are of one of their colleagues.

Junior sous chef Jamaar Semper is through to the semi-finals of the BBC One television's 13th MasterChef: The Professionals cookery competition.

Hywel Jones, the Executive Chef and Director of Food & Beverage at Lucknam Park Hotel & Spa at Colerne, says the whole team are rooting for Mr Semper to get through to the final.

He said: "I am absolutely delighted for him. He is an amazing and talent chef and is a very humble young man.

"Jamaar is definitely one of the most talented chefs that we have had here; the challenge is going to be keeping him.

"We are very pleased that he is being recognised for his talent and it is good for the hotel.

"We are all delighted with him and it is brilliant for the guys in the kitchen as well to have someone in their midst whose career is going so well."

Mr Semper, 22, from Bristol, is one of the youngest chefs competing for the MasterChef: The Professionals title.

He says he is "still in shock" after winning through to the semi-finals.

"Now that it has happened, I am ecstatic. I never thought I would get through to the semi-finals," said Mr Semper, who first how to cook from his mother Becky and trained at the City of Bristol College.

Mr Jones, 49, from Newport, has himself taken part in the Great British Menu TV programme, in which the nation's top chefs compete for the chance to cook at an incredible four-course banquet.

He has so far trained three chefs who have performed well in the MasterChef: The Professionals series.

One of his sous chefs, Mark Stinchcombe won the competition in 2015 after leaving Lucknam Park Hotel. He went to Eckington Manor in the Cotswolds and is now leading the food offering at Severn & Wye Smokery in Westbury-on-Severn.

Another of Mr Jones' talented chefs, Elly Wentworth, was a runner-up in the 2016 MasterChef: The Professionals and is now head chef at The Angel in Dartmouth.

Mr Jones has worked at Lucknam Park Hotel & Spa for the past 16 years after joining in 2004 and has a 20-strong team in his kitchen.

The hotel's Restaurant Hywel Jones has been Michelin-starred for its food since 2006, while the kitchen also caters for customers using its brasserie.

Mr Jones believes the BBC MasterChef competition is good training for his chefs and brings them to the attention of the wider general public.

"I encourage them to take part in industry competitions but the good thing about MasterChef: The Professionals is that it goes out to the wider public."

Mr Semper won the South West Young Chef of the year Award in 2019 and a Royal Academy of Culinary Arts’ Annual Award of Excellence 2019 award.

Earlier this year, he was a finalist in this year’s Craft Guild of Chefs National Young Chef of the Year competition in Exeter.

On Tuesday, December 15 at 9pm on BBC One TV, the six finalists will be asked to come up with their own twists on classic dishes.

On Wednesday, December 16 at 9pm, the final four chefs will be asked to prepare dishes for eight of the UK's most respected chefs.

In the MasterChef: The Professionals final at 9pm on Thursday, December 17, the three remaining finalists will be asked to cook three courses that embody everything they are as a chef and the winner will be crowned with the title.