It's finals week on MasterChef: The Professionals 2015. Let's meet Mark Holland hoping to impress Michelin-starred Marcus Wareing and Monica Galetti to be in with a chance of taking this year's title.

Name: Mark Holland

Region: London

Age: 35 (34 at time of filming)

Profession: Sous Chef

Personal: Married

Cooking Background: “Cooking definitely runs in my family. My grandmother was an amazing cook, and I have some very fond memories of her teaching me to cook when I was young. Also, my father owned a well-known restaurant in Harrogate for many years.

“I started my career as a kitchen porter for a family friend’s restaurant, and then worked my way up from there. I have had the opportunity to work with some fantastic chefs in my career. A huge part of my training came from working at The Box Tree, a Michelin starred restaurant in Ilkley. It was an extremely high-pressured and hardworking job, but one I believe has made me into the chef I am today.

Cooking Influences:
“My family and friends have been the biggest influence in my career. They’ve given me so much support.

On MasterChef: The Professionals: “I love watching MasterChef: The Professionals every year, and have always thought

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about potentially entering. My wife was the drive behind submitting my application. It’s also a great challenge.

“It’s an incredible feeling making it into the Final Week, it feels very surreal. There is such a high calibre of talented chefs in the show, and I feel honoured to be a part of that. mark h masterchef quote

“In terms of nerves, my most challenging moment in the competition was Monica Galetti’s Skills Test, the first test we faced. Although it was very simple, my nerves got the better of me and I cracked.
In terms of pressure however, it has to be the Critics round. An hour and
fifteen minutes is a challenging length of time to create dishes as you would want them to be. It was also the hottest day of the year, and the kitchen was at melting point!

Cooking ambitions: “My ambition is to one day have my own gastro pub. I work as the Sous Chef at The Bull & Last, a gastro pub in London, which I absolutely love. I love the feeling of a cosy, relaxed pub serving amazing food. My dream is to own one and have my family come in to eat; I’ve dreamt of this for many years, and I’m sure that this show has given me the confidence to go out and get it.”

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