MASTERCHEF winner Simon Wood is certainly a gourmet on the gallop.

Two-and-a-half years after becoming the first northerner to lift the much-coveted trophy and just eight weeks after opening his first restaurant in Manchester city centre, he’s back staring down the lens of the BBC1 show’s cameras.

He’s appeared as a guest judge a couple times since his own sweet smell of success but this time the Masterchef crew came to him.

They descended on Wood MCR, in First Street, to film a catch-up on his first foray into running a fine dining establishment for the next series.

In fact it was a busy day for the Chadderton chef who was not only also preparing to feed a frenzy of diners, he was also tarting up dishes to be photographed by The Telegraph Lifestyle magazine to accompany his first “biggie” review critiqued by food writer Michael Deacon.

And there’s more. Incredibly, just two months after opening he’s already listed on www.restaurantsofmanchester.com’s top 10 best list coming 7th among the likes of The French and Mr Coopers at The Midland Hotel, Manchester House, James Martin Manchester and Grafene. The website sends seasoned foodies to review armed with a complex secret questionnaire scoring on a hundred different areas of criteria. Also, one of Simon’s favourite Wood MCR dishes, beef fillet, burnt onion, horseradish and Madeira truffle, has just been shortlisted in the fine dining category of the Food Porn Awards 2018. You can vote for it at www.foodpornawards.co.uk/entries/beef-burnt-onion-horseradish-madeira-truffle/.

He and his head chef, former Grenache owner chef Mike Jennings, have also been feeding a host of famous faces - Manchester band The Courteeners, several Manchester United players including Phil Jones who thought Wood MCR was “fantastic”, Oldham actress Sally Ann Matthews, 2013 Masterchef winner Natalie Coleman and this year’s winner, Saliha.

He is now nervously anticipating the arrival of a very special guest who has reserved a table.

Someone he’s already bowled over with his “lick the plate brilliance” - yes you’ve guessed it, jovial MasterChef judge Gregg Wallace who will be dining with his daughter later this month.

He says while the first few weeks of his eponymous first restaurant have been amazing, Wood MCR has been neither a picnic nor a walk in the park and at some stage soon he’s looking forward to being able to take stock.

“It’s going really well and to say we’ve only been open eight weeks, the response has been incredible,” said the father of four.

“It could be busier, particularly midweek lunchtimes, but this is a new part of Manchester which is up-and-coming and it’s growing all the time so I guess it’s just word of mouth really. I think I’m just being too ambitious, it’s still early days.”

“I’m not really sure how it feels right now,” admitted Simon, who is also executive chef at his beloved Latics, cooking on Saturday match days and designing the menus and writes a food and drink column in Lancashire Life.

“I haven’t had the time to reflect. I haven’t had a holiday since MasterChef. A proper relaxing-by-the-pool-type-break would be good. I think at that point I may be able to take a step back and take it all in but right now it’s full on.

To book a table or to find diner specials such as Tomahawk Tuesday, go to woodmanchester.com or call 0161-236 5211.