Lee Ryan

Aged 24

Food Heaven: Anything healthy, Sushi, Sea urchins, Eggs Benedict, French cheese

Food Hell: Fast food

Pop star and actor Lee Ryan is confident that his secret ingredient to succeeding in Hell’s Kitchen - his easy charm and inclination to flirt with the female contestants – will ease him through the competition.

Best known for being part of the hugely successful boy band Blue, Lee has grown up fending off female attention but as a single man in his twenties he revels in the attention, confessing that his ideal dessert would not be a traditional dish: “You mean, WHO would I have for dessert?!”

Enthusiastic about food, Lee wants to hone the cooking skills he already has, and jokes that it could help him to settle down.

“I’ve never really wanted to do programmes like this but when I heard it was cooking it’s something I liked the idea of. I wouldn’t just do something because of the fact of being on TV. At least I’m doing something and that’s why I agreed to do it. I want to learn something from it, I’m actually going to come away with a life skill which hopefully will help with finding my wife someday!”

Classing himself as a fairly good cook, Lee makes all sorts of traditional dishes but when impressing a lady, he likes to experiment and says that the trick is in the presentation.

“I make spaghetti and lasagnes and loads of different things.When I’m cooking to impress a girl though I like to make it look professional - it’s not just about stuffing it on a plate. If you only do the smallest little thing to make it look like a gourmet meal, it’s about presentation, everything’s about presentation.”

“The last meal I made for a girl was monkfish but I put too much soy sauce on it and it came out really salty.

“That didn’t go down too well…” Lee adds with a cheeky grin.

Lee confesses that he’s got something to prove as his sister is also a great chef and has appeared on MasterChef.

“My sister Gemma won MasterChef when she was younger so she started cooking and because she cooked, I cooked. My mum always said to me ‘never depend on a woman, you’ve got to be self-dependant. I’ve always been independent and I’ve lived on my own for four, five years now and I do my own washing.”

He might do his own washing, but Lee, who has recently set up home in LA to pursue a career in acting, admits that he tends to go out to eat nowadays rather than eat in.

“I eat out a lot. I go to some beautiful restaurants. I go mainly to a lot of sushi restaurants. I live on sushi, sushi is a big big part of my diet. It is amazing food and I’ve lost so much weight through eating it.”

With a new secret role coming up in a Hollywood film and having just completed work on another film called Heavy, Lee is very conscious about keeping fit for his work, and as well as being a self-confessed gym junkie, his eating habits have changed since his move.

“I’m very adventurous with my food. I’m quite health conscious actually, I don’t eat crap. I won’t eat crap, it’s just something I won’t do. I try and stay away from fast food. I’ll cook myself a good meal with vegetables and meat. I’ll turn into one of these LA freaks who has one cup of wheatgrass and things like protein powder! But I feel healthy and I feel really good at the moment.”

Counting Gordon Ramsay as a friend and aware that Gordon has trained under Marco’s leadership, Lee is intrigued to meet his new head chef.

“I wanted to do the show because I actually thought Gordon was going to be doing it! I’ve met him a few times and I think he’s a really lovely guy and I think he’s got a lot of respect. I’ve never really met Marco but I hear that he’s well respected in the industry and I appreciate a respected guy who’s got a passion. I think he’s going to be an interesting person.”

“I can take anything he says about my cooking but if he says anything personal that upsets me then I will just walk off.”

A hard-worker, Lee says that he’ll be calm and methodical in his cooking and although he’s more than prepared to take criticism, he wants to make sure that he has fun as well.

“I’m definitely a joker in a team. I’ll have fun. He (Marco) might not stand for any food fights but I might chuck a few peas around or someone might get a mange-tout in the head when they’re not looking. I can be serious but sometimes temptation can be a bit difficult. I hope when things hit the fan I can concentrate but I don’t know.”

He adds: “I can be distracted by a pretty woman. I am a man. That will be difficult if there are any sexy women in there. Can you be sexy – sweating and chopping carrots?”