Former Atomic Kitten Liz McLarnon tells Emma Pinch how her Masterchef triumph revealed an unexpected talent

THERE are some jobs we expect girl banders to turn to once the bubble of pop superstardom has burst.

Roles on soaps, underwear lines, children’s books – but given past pressures to stay rail thin, food ventures might not seem an obvious choice.

But for former members of Atomic Kitten it’s proving a sweet idea.

There’s Natasha Hamilton with her bistro H and bar/club/restaurant Hamilton’s, and now Liz McLarnon who has revealed an unexpected talent in the kitchen.

Liz’s win on Celebrity Masterchef in July was a surprise to many. At 27 she was the youngest competitor and her natural shyness was the opposite of chef machismo.

But as Liz, who now presents the National Lottery show, explains, it’s all in the genes.

Her mother, Janet, a counsellor and hypnotherapist, initially trained as a chef at catering college, and it was her passion for creative cooking that persuaded Liz to take part.

Now after a stint teaching easy recipes on GMTV’s LK Today, she’s got a regular spot on UKTV’s Market Kitchen.

“ I did Masterchef because my mum wanted me to,” she laughs.

“She said, ‘Elizabeth you better agree because you know I love that show’. She gave me a proper guilt trip and said, ‘if you love me you will do it’.

“At first I thought winning was a fluke, but it’s got to run in the family because my little brother is an amazing cook.

“He’d come in at 3am slaughtered drunk and want to do a stir fry while I’d be watching Sex in the City and he’d ask if I wanted to share. It was always delicious, even at that time of night.

“My mum went to catering college and she’s a really, really good cook and when I was growing up my mum did everything, curries, pasta, all sorts of different foods.

“I remember when my brother came home from school aged about nine, my mum said to him “what did you have for dinner today?’ And he said ‘it was really nice today mum: they did chips, fish fingers and beans’. For him that was exotic.”