A blind contestant in Celebrity MasterChef may sound like a recipe for disaster but Amar Latif is no ordinary man.
Millions saw him trek more than 200 miles across Nicaragua with a group of disabled people on TV hit Beyond Boundaries.
So surely after fording swollen rivers, cutting through dense jungle, crossing waterfalls and climbing a 5,000ft active volcano, a telly cooking show should be a piece of cake?
Well, intrepid Amar, 45, does not think so. The show’s first blind contestant called it “the most terrifying thing I have done”.
Which makes his progress to the show’s semi-finals all the more remarkable.
The TV travel presenter has astounded viewers with his skill, combined with an infectious can-do attitude and boundless energy.
And away from the cameras, the culinary novice has been enjoying his newfound passion for food.
He said: “During lockdown, I’ve been busy making incredible meals,
“I forget I’m blind when I’m doing it.”
Amar, who runs a travel agency for the visually impaired, said he surprised himself as well as his doubters as his confidence and ability grew by the week.
He has fed 120 people in a busy canteen as well as rustling up spectacular dishes in a Michelin-star kitchen.
But before he went on air, some called his inclusion ridiculous and “a box-ticking exercise” by the BBC.
Amar said: “Even I had a preconception I wouldn’t be able to do much. But I got my head down and worked really hard.”
The show has also given him greater independence in the kitchen to make vegetable curries, his signature chicken curry and cheesecakes.
He said: “Now my mother trusts me in there. Before, if she saw me pull out a knife to cut onions, she’d take it off me. I made her a spicy scrambled egg. She watched so calmly as I whipped out my knife and took it in her stride. That’s special.”
When he was born in Glasgow, Amar had sight – but he was diagnosed with a degenerative eye condition at four.
Aged 18, having just started a mathematics, stats and finance degree at Strathclyde University, he woke up blind one day.
He said: “I couldn’t see the Madonna poster at the end of my bed.
“All I could see was light fog. I closed my eyes, rubbed them and opened them again, thinking it’d be OK. But it dawned on me that this was it and I was now blind.”
Amar was depressed for months, missing out on the good times other students enjoyed and his dream of learning to drive.
“Suddenly, the world was closed. I didn’t think I was able to do anything. Then I realised I was stuck at a dead end and I had to start climbing.”
He also thought losing his sight had killed his dream of being an accountant. But support from his family helped him through.
He recalled: “I said to Dad ‘What’s the point of me going to uni if I can’t see?’ He said ‘Take it step by step and we’ll worry about that when we get there’.”
Independent Amar shocked his parents by deciding to do the third year of his degree in Canada. His mum did not want him to leave the house alone.
But he said: “I suddenly realised I didn’t want to live in a protective box, wrapped up in cotton wool.” Showing the same steely determination, he qualified as an accountant before heading finance for British Telecom.
He launched travel company Traveleyes, sparked by his trip to Canada, and became a TV host.
Amar said: “When you push yourself into something terrifying it often turns out to be the best thing.”
Although he turned MasterChef down at first, he is glad he changed his mind. He said: “If you’ve got the right mindset you can push through and achieve something that may have seemed impossible.”
So how did coming face to face with tough critics John Torode and Gregg Wallace feel? Amar said: “It was terrifying. When you walk up with your plate, first of all I need to make sure I’m heading in the right direction.
“When I get there, they can be pretty serious. When they’re tasting, they don’t speak.
“As a blind person, it’s hard for me to know what’s happening.
“So I imagine this couple having a romantic meal – a long-married couple who have nothing to say to each other.”
Amar said he rarely cuts himself in the kitchen and a heightened sense of taste, touch, sound and smell gives him an advantage over his rivals.
“Getting to the semis is incredible. Getting through the first round was amazing as I had no idea I’d do that. I genuinely thought I’d be out.”
And Amar said he was delighted that he has helped give other visually impaired people a taste for cooking.
You can see him in the semis on BBC1 this Wednesday, 9pm.
