The Ready Steady Cook star and the winner of the 1993 series of MasterChef has passed away after suffering from cancer.
Ross Burden died in Auckland City Hospital, New Zealand on 17 July after contracting an infection during a bone marrow transplant.
The New Zealand native made waves in the UK after he won the BBC cooking show, MasterChef, in 1993. Ross also made several appearances on Ready Steady Cook alongside the presenter and chef Ainsley Harriott.
He later returned to the New Zealand version of MasterChef as a judge in 2010.
Ross Burden fellow judge Simon Gault told the New Zealand Herald newspaper: “He was great to work with. He was never a minute without a laugh or a joke – great sense of humour.”
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The chef was completing a Masters in Maori Studies at Auckland University before he died and was just weeks away from finishing his final assignment before dying from surgery linked to his ongoing battle with leukaemia.
His sister, Kirsten Hughes, told the Herald: “He’s just a friendly, compassionate guy – nothing was too much trouble. He was my big, fantastic incredible, larger-than-life brother.
“Right up until probably a week-and-a-half ago, he was making his next lot of plans. He had the world map out.”