Great expectations for chef show winner

Despite being sick while competing against fellow finalists David Coulson, 25, and John Calton, 29, in the third series of the hit BBC programme, Claire Lara did not realise she was pregnant and put her symptoms down to nerves.

"I think being pregnant gave me an advantage. It heightened my sense of smell and taste," she said. "I felt so sick and was vomiting each day but I put it down to stress on the show as David was feeling the same. But obviously, he wasn't pregnant!"

Lara, who is expecting a boy, said she now dreams of opening her own restaurant with her French husband Marc but, in the meantime, has been offered a job with judge and Michelin-starred chef

Michel Roux Jr.