Spoilers: Charlie Jeffreys made it into the final three on MasterChef: The Professionals 2022, with dreams of opening a farm and restaurant of his own one day. Although Charlie didn’t win the grand title, he never gave up.
Nikita Pathakji was crowned this year’s The Professionals champion, but Charlie was just behind her. During the final on BBC One on Sunday, December 11, three successful contestants done their best to impress the judges.
Charlie didn’t win but hasn’t given up on his dreams of opening his own farm and restaurant in the future. Let’s look at where the MasterChef finalist is today and see how fans are cheering the chef on.
Meet chef Charlie Jeffreys
Charlie Jeffreys is a London-based Dorset-born guy who made it to the final three on MasterChef: The Professionals 2022. He currently works as a senior chef de partie at three Michelin star restaurant Alain Ducasse at The Dorchester.
The 24-year-old explained during episode 13 that his great uncle owns a watercress farm and often ate it as a child, so it seems that Charlie is accustomed to great flavors and fresh ingredients. His mum Pauline’s cooking also inspired him.
He is in a relationship with Freya Ruston from Dorset. Charlie revealed that going on the BBC cooking competition is a “big highlight” of his career, after spending ten years in the industry, from helping kitchen cooks to working in London.
Charlie on MasterChef: The Professionals
Charlie competed on MasterChef: The Professionals a decade after he began his career as a chef working as a pot washer at Talbury Cottage in Lower Bockhampton, near Dorchester.
During his BBC stint, he created a scallop cherry dish which judges loved for his “bravery,” as well as a crab sukkah as a pledge to his home in Dorset. Charlie revealed why he chose to make the crab:
Because of Dorset and my home. Crab is everywhere, when I go fishing I get crab. When I go to a restaurant there’s crab so I thought of going for it.
Despite only preparing seafood for the third time, the cook, who was struggling with nerves, managed to cook the six whole two-kilo crabs required for his dish. However, his pancakes had gotten stuck to the plancha grill.
With some challenges along the way, Charlie’s chef skills certainly impressed the judges enough to put him through to the final three. Fans have high hopes for the MasterChef contestant and hope he opens a restaurant one day.
He dreams of opening a restaurant
Charlie wants to follow in his great uncle’s footsteps and open his own farm one day. The chef also wants to go from working for a fine dining restaurant to opening his own – attached to the farm – at some point in the future.
Having just bought his first flat with girlfriend Freya, Charlie has bigger dreams for the foreseeable. He already has a line-up ready to staff it, in brother and farmer Jack and younger brother Nathan, 22, who works at the Four Seasons.
Freya is head waitress at a Gordon Ramsay restaurant, while Charlie’s cousin Crystal Old, who he worked with at Yalbury, works in catering. A fan told Charlie: “Well done, hope your dream of having a restaurant and farm come true.”
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