Contestants cook up a storm in TV show

A burlesque garden show, sausage-making machine and an aspiring Cheryl Cole were all on the menu when TV reality show Come Dine With Me came to the Black Country.

The Channel 4 programme filmed in Dudley aired yesterday saw 23-year-old mortgage consultant and self-styled WAG Amanda Challoner take on financial advisor Ian Jones, aged 56, care worker Khakan Qureshi, aged 39, and 24-year-old plumber-by-day, podium-dancer-by-night Sophie Robbins.

As the programme began, Miss Challoner promised: "My food is going to be simple and full of flavour, like me."

And she soon lived up to her statement, asking the group whether Gordon Brown was ginger – possibly confusing the PM with Simply Red singer Mick Hucknall.

While she later revealed a number of hidden talents, including an impressive linguistic ability and surprisingly discerning palate, it was not enough to win her the show, earning just 18 points for goats cheese and red onion tartlets with tomato chutney, homemade lasagne and lemon and ginger cheesecake for dessert.

Whether this mark would have improved had her homemade pasta sheets not got stuck to the side when she left them out to dry, forcing her to settle for store-bought pasta, was unclear.

The most controversial member of the group was Khakan, informing Amanda she could not "pull off" being both ditzy and intellectual, accusing Ian of being lecherous and calling Sophie's flame-throwing, burlesque performance featuring power tools "average".

While his guests enjoyed his meal of pakora, chicken curry and Mrs Qureshi's Famous Meetha Chawal, they all said the atmosphere was not comfortable enough to give him more than a combined score of 19.

His "psychic abilities" also failed to impress.

Sophie, as well as giving the group a glimpse of her evening job, struggled to make a meal of garlic mushrooms and bruschetta, fish pie and chocolate sin as her mother had written out the recipe in ounces which confused her.

However, her "sassy" personality won them over and she earned the second highest points at 24.

Home-grown food fan Ian's winning meal consisted of smoked fish soufflé.

He also prepared a special Halal filet mignon for Khakan, tournedos with a special 'crying pig sauce' for himself and the girls, and chocolate cheesecake for a delicious dessert.

He also let his guests experiment with a sausage-making device reminiscent of a Playdoh machine as the evening's entertainment.

"I going to spend my money on my wife," he said. "She's put up with me for 30 years and she deserves it."

The show featured scenes of local landmarks including Dudley Castle and introduced the Black Country as "a place where people eat faggots."