MOTHER Jo Jenkins was back in her own kitchen today after her TV MasterChef experience.

Jo (right) made it through to the quarter finals of Britain's most fiercely contested cookery competition before knocked out.

Jo, 36, from Galmpton, battled her way to the quarter finals of amateur MasterChef, having been selected out of 13,000 applicants at the start of the series.

More than four million prime time BBC1 viewers saw her cope with the stresses and strains of not only cooking against the clock for experts John Torode and Gregg Wallace, but also knowing her efforts would be watched by friends and family through the ever-present TV cameras.

Jo and her husband Robert run the Manor Lodge dental practice in Totnes. She told the programme her ambition was to have a country house hotel — with a wing for her husband's dental practice.

Jo works full time as the dental practice manager and told the programme she had entered because her life was busy with the practice, their three children and their dog, and she wanted to achieve something for herself.

"I had a superb time," she said. "It was great fun, and I would recommend it to anybody into cooking.

"I was disappointed to be knocked out, but going into the semi finals would have meant spending two weeks in London which would have been difficult with my work and family. So the programme made the decision for me."

The favourite dish she cooked — pan-fried sea bass with saffron and crab sauce, served with samphire and crushed potatoes — was inspired by her Brixham childhood and the quality of local fish. Her father Ray Gardner runs Gardner Builders in the town.

She has no plans to take up cookery professionally but says she may do dinner parties for other people.

She added: "I didn't expect to get as far as I did. When I went up for the auditions I was surprised they chose my dish.

"From the 13,000 they chose 600 people and then 136 went on the programme. Robert has always been supportive and appreciative of my cooking and said he was extremely proud to see me on television."

And her children, William aged seven, Lawrence aged five and Olivia, three, are equally appreciative.