Anjeza's move to city inspired her to apply for MasterChef

CITY'S RESTAURANT SCENE OPENED HER EYES TO DIFFERENT CUISINES

- By GEORGE PALMER-SOADY

WHEN MasterChef contestant Anjeza Popaj moved to Nottingham to go to university in 2014, she quickly became enamoured with the city’s wide range of great places to eat and drink.

Born in Albania, but having grown up in a small town in rural Somerset, Anjeza says they were very few options when it came to eating out in her hometown.

Yet it was when she began her course in law at Nottingham Trent University that the 28-year-old discovered her love for different types of cooking.

“The town we lived in - there wasn’t really much going on,’ she said.

“Even for takeaways - they just didn’t exist in our household, but coming to Nottingham was an eyeopener for all of those different cuisines”.

More than 10 years later, Anjeza’s casual hobby has now become a huge part of her life.

The self-taught chef recently appeared as a contestant in Series 21 of the BBC cooking competition.

Cooking a traditional Albanian dish close to her heart, the former NTU student wooed the judges with her cooking abilities on the Heat 8 episode.

In the 11 years since Anjeza first moved to Nottingham, she’s carefully refined and mastered her skills in the kitchen.

But she says the city’s “brilliant” food and drink scene has also played a huge part in her love for cooking.