Louise Lyons MacLeod MasterChef Wiki, Age, Husband, Daughter, Cancer

Louise Lyons MacLeod Biography – Louise Lyons MacLeod Wiki

Louise Lyons MacLeod is an amateur cook and contestant on MasterChef 2024. She was born and grew up in Staffordshire. After spending some time in the Cotswolds, she bought a small farm in Exmoor where she now lives with her husband Ally and daughter Ophelia.

Louise told the BBC about her earliest cooking memory: “My earliest cooking memories are with my family. Both of my parents love food and cooked everything from scratch, something I hope to pass on to my daughter. I helped my mum in the kitchen often and many of my favourite times were baking with her. Her scones and cakes are still legendary now. My grandma was another important influence and taught me about cooking family favourites and Scottish classics. I would often help her, for example, in making the traditional high tea on a Sunday. This was a family ritual and holds lots of happy memories for us all.”

Her style of cooking is “inspired by seasonality, the British landscape and the food we grow and raise on the farm. My recipes are always ingredient-led, as it’s enormously important to me that I support British farmers and use as much locally grown produce as possible. In a nutshell, I think my style of food is slightly fancy classic farmhouse.”

“I try to minimise kitchen waste and I respect the animals I farm by using all of the animal, which I feel makes me more creative and inventive. I’ve also been influenced by Jamie Oliver, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Gill Meller because of their simple, rustic styles of food. Monica Galetti is a huge inspiration to me, she is cooking at the top of her game and a role model for me and my daughter. I admire Adam Handling’s ethos of championing wonderful British produce, reducing waste and being sustainable whilst also producing incredibly beautiful and precise food.”

Louise Lyons MacLeod Age

Louise Lyons MacLeod was born in 1980 in Staffordshire. She is 44 years old as of 2024.

Louise Lyons MacLeod Family

MasterChef contestant Louise Lyons MacLeod lives in Exmoor with her husband Ally MacLeod and daughter Ophelia. Ally is a pilot in the military.

Louise Lyons MacLeod MasterChef

Louise Lyons MacLeod, 44, is a contestant on the 20th series of MasterChef on BBC One and BBC iPlayer. She is among the contestants cooking for judges John Torode and Gregg Wallace in the second heat of MasterChef 2024, alongside Jerome, Olivia Hall, Peter, Rana and Sidney.

Louise told the BBC about her earliest MasterChef memories and its impact: “As a young girl I can remember watching the original MasterChef series, it fascinated me and I would ask my family to judge the food I’d helped create. When MasterChef was revived with our esteemed judges John and Gregg, I would dash home to watch it. My friends would laugh at me – the same friends suggested for years I should apply!

“Over the years, I’ve gained knowledge, confidence, and inspiration from watching. MasterChef has stood the test of time and is as relevant and boundary challenging as it ever has been. MasterChef has inspired generations of amateur, professional and celebrity cooks. For me, it’s a kind, encouraging TV show where you’ll be met with positivity, where you can see ordinary people trying their best, learning new skills and excelling at something they love. I really hope that I will still be watching the same show for the next 20 series.”

Louise entered MasterChef after friends and family persuaded her to apply for the BBC series. She said: “For at least 15 years my friends and family have been badgering me to apply for MasterChef. The reason I applied this year was that I had just had my five year cancer-versary. I was diagnosed when my daughter was 18 months old and our world imploded. My diagnosis and intense treatment took a long time to come to terms with and changed me. A positive change was to try to embrace all of life’s opportunities fully; not to say ‘no’ to scary things or to allow the myriad nasty side effects that I live with each day to stop me from having adventures. And so, I had to apply, and I am enormously glad I did.”

Louise Lyons MacLeod Cancer

Louise Lyons MacLeod was diagnosed with aggressive Stage 2 breast cancer in 2017. In November 2017, “I’d found a small, hard lump in my left breast, and I had pain under my armpit,” Louise told Netmums during Breast Cancer Awareness Month. “I saw my GP and tests confirmed it was stage 2 breast cancer.”

Over the next 9 months, Louise went through chemotherapy, a mastectomy, radiotherapy and immunotherapy. She was also put on daily and monthly hormone therapy.

Louise Lyons MacLeod Instagram

Louise Lyons MacLeod’s Instagram handle is exmoor_farmher.