The seven best home cooks from this week's first round return to test their culinary wits and try to prove to judges John Torode and Gregg Wallace that they have the potential to be MasterChef champion 2022.

Tonight, the contestants face two challenges that are designed to gauge both their creativity and culinary repertoire. The first is the Market Challenge, where the seven must invent a dish on the spot for judges John and Gregg from a market full of ingredients including chicken thighs, rack of venison and whole John Dory. The pressure is on to impress because at the end of this test one contestant will be sent home.

The remaining six then take on their most demanding assignment so far: cooking a dish to a brief set by one of the country's toughest food critics, Jay Rayner. Jay has asked them to cook a dish with one of the most versatile ingredients in the world, rice. Whether it be used in a savoury or sweet dish, it must be the star ingredient, not just an accompaniment.

Just two places are up for grabs in this week's quarter-final, so the dishes must be flawless.

It's the fifth and final week of heats, and the last nine home cooks arrive to face the Audition Round. They must cook their signature dish that will show judges John and Gregg who they are as a cook and how good they could become.

John and Gregg don't witness them cook in the MasterChef kitchen. Instead, they taste each dish in the new Tasting Room. Just like diners in a restaurant, they judge each contestant's food solely on the plate that is put in front of them. After tasting all nine plates, John and Gregg pick their three favourite dishes, awarding those cooks a MasterChef apron and immunity from cooking in the next round.

The remaining six contestants get another chance to impress the judges and win themselves a coveted apron. If they delivered a savoury dish in the first round, they must now cook a sweet dish, or vice versa. This time, John and Gregg are in the kitchen witnessing their every move. The pressure is intense and the stakes are high as only four cooks can join the three already fast-tracked in the next round. For the other two, their MasterChef dream will be over.