Opening a restaurant is a MasterChef finalist’s dream. It’s taken Andrew Koj five years. Has it been worth the wait?
Koj, 3 Regent Street, Cheltenham GL50 1HE (01242 580 455). Meal for two, including drinks and service: £60
As the current series of MasterChef roars along, full of shout and John Torode’s eye rolling and sauces spread with the backs of spoons, consider for a moment the lot of those who will make it to the final. For weeks, they will have been allowed to indulge in the one thing that makes them happy: cooking. What’s more, by making it to the last three, they will have been told they’re good at it. One of them wins. Two of them are runners-up and announce they couldn’t be happier for the one who beat them, because the narrative demands a quiet emotional lie or two.