For many of us, getting to go on a show we've admired and have watched since childhood is only a pipe dream and one far reaching. But for Owen Vaughan, a chef from Barmouth, it was one he was determined to make happen - and now it has come true as he's made it onto one of he UK's most prestigious cooking shows, MasterChef: The Professionals.
Owen, 25, is competing in the semi-final of the BBC series on Monday, November 28. You can read all about his journey so far in the competition here. He started cooking at a young age, in a setting most of us are so familiar with, and from there his love for cooking snowballed.
"It's pretty cliche," he says, "but [I began] cooking from a young age being around my nan... I always have a fond memory of [me,] my brother and my sister going over her house around around this time of the year, doing mince pies and typical butterfly cakes, you know what I mean? And we did that every year. That was a lovely thing to do. And then yeah, I just started from there."
After learning the ropes from his nan, he got a job in a coffee shop at 13 - for just a few hours - but, making those hours count, he would always go into the kitchen and ask to be shown how to make the food they were making. Impressing them with his skills, he began doing more in the cafe kitchen and recalls this as his first stepping stone into the world of customer-facing cooking.
And while a restaurant kitchen and cafe kitchen are two very different things in terms of pace and discipline, Owen says he had prepared himself for the shift.
"In my spare time, before I got my first restaurant job, I'd always be watching stuff on YouTube and watching cooking programmes and watching professional chefs [on] MasterChef, watching that. And I'd sort of prepared myself for what it'd be like - kitchen discipline.
"I probably acted a lot older than I was when I was 15. I was probably acting like an 18-year-old at the time because I wanted to respect the chef I was working for."
Getting his first restaurant kitchen job at 15 before going to catering college, he explains how he eased himself into cheffing life by working nights and weekends before working full time upon finishing college - although he reflects that maybe he should have given himself a chance to breathe.
He reflects: "I knew what I was putting myself in for, everyone told me 'If you want a career in cheffing, it's not a job for everyone. You've got to do it because you love it'. Because it's everything people don't want - it's not very good pay, it's long hours, but I always just ignored that. And I love doing it. That's why I wanted to do it."
And while it was tough watching his mates going out as a young 19-year-old, he tells me: "I stuck to it and got me to where I am today really."
And where he is today is pretty impressive for someone of only 25. Owen, whose favourite chef is Adam Byatt, says one of his greatest acheivements is becoming head chef at Penmaenuchaf Hotel in Snowdonia - which received two rosettes - at just 23 years of age after being a junior sous chef there.
Recalling the moment he applied for the job he said: "I thought I might not be ready for it, I'd just turned 23. I was just thinking I wasn't going to get it and then got it. And for me, that was a massive achievement. To be head chef at 23. I was really happy with that."
He goes on to reveal that it was at that time he decided to give MasterChef: The Professionals a go - his third time of applying. But he says: 'I've got the confidence now'."
Owen, who has a one-year-old daughter, Nola, with his fiancee, Alis, who runs Barmouth coffee shop Goodies, added: "I've watched it for years. I remember being in school watching it and being like, 'wow, this is amazing'. I've always wanted to go on it. I've tried a few times to get on the show and luckily, this time, it happened."
But has the experience of being on the show - and getting to the semi-final - lived up to expectation?
"It's a hell of an experience," he says, enthusiastically. "It was one of those pinch-me moments. Walking onto the studio and being in the studio and everything. And it's something I'll never forget. I couldn't have asked for a better experience, I don't think."
Owen, who is now working as a sous chef at a hotel in Portmeirion which is closer to home, has made his way to the semi-final after impressing the judges in the first heats and it's an achievement he "never dreamed" he could do.
"It's like a dream. I was just hoping to go on the show and just get through that first round. And to be a semifinalist is just... sometimes it hasn't sunk in and representing Wales as well I'm super proud of that aspect. It's amazing to fly the flag for Wales."
With Wales rooting for him to get through to the final, he tells us his mum and fiancee, too, are extremely proud of his acheivements.
"My mum and dad are so happy that I've gone on it. My mum's watched it about 50 times! She keeps telling me 'I've watched it again'. They're super proud but I'm also proud of myself, you know, it's a massive achievement."
He adds that he wouldn't be able to do it without the support of his partner, to whom he is getting married early next year. "It's not easy when you're going off like that and you have to leave her and the baby. But she's been lovely about it. And she's egged me on. And she understands because she's in the industry, too, so knows what it means to me, so it's good. She's been brilliant."
His dream is to own his own restaurant one day in Wales with its very own Michelin star - "there's not enough in Wales" - and tells me that he takes inspiration with his food "from wherever". He adds: "That's what's so fun about being a chef. You never stop learning."
Owen will be competing on MasterChef: The Professionals on Monday, November 28 at 9pm, on BBC One and iPlayer.
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