Nic serves up Northern Ireland's best dessert

A LISBURN Chiropractor swapped his clinic for a TV kitchen recently when he made it through to the quarter finals of the popular Britain's Best Dish - an annual cooking competition to find the country's most delicious starter, main course and dessert.

Nicolas Maurice, 36, who owns Lisburn Chiropractic on Bachelors Walk, got through to the top 20 from over 1500 applicants to produce a dessert.

When he was given the news he said he was delighted. "I suddenly realised that I was going to have to prepare a dessert and it was wonderful to be given the chance," he explained.

The father of one has a great passion for cooking in his spare time and says he has been inspired by his travels around the world. He was born in Mauritius but moved to Australia at the age of 13 before setting up in business in Lisburn.

Regular viewers of the show saw Nicolas battle it out on the ITV show three days last week, preparing his signature dish of Pecan and crushed fig pudding, cinnamon baked figs, crme chantilly and butterscotch sauce for the panel of judges. While he didn't make it into the finals where the overall winner received the ultimate accolade of 'Britain's Best Dish' and took home a 10,000 cash prize, he can be proud as he did win the regional final for Northern ireland and Scotland.

"Cooking on the Best Dish show was an excellent experience and I loved every minute of it. It was great meeting new people and I've received really good feedback and a lot of people have shown me their support," said Nicolas.

If you are interested in making Nicolas's dessert please find the recipe on: www.itv.com/lifestyle/food/britainsbestdish/2010/pecancrushedfigpudding/default.html