Not all of us can cook like Gordon Ramsey but we all have one recipe that we make regularly enough to call it our signature dish.

And with three MHKs battling it out to make the best Manx baked Alaska at The Food and Drink Festival later in the month we wanted to know what you like cooking.

James McNulty from Peel is a second-year university student and doesn’t think he’s much of a chef because instead of reading the cookery book his mum bought him, he spent his first year reading the instructions on ready meals.

He added: ’Yeah I’m not much of a chef. I make pasta, but it’s not really cooking, it’s just boiling water isn’t it.’

Alice Owen,19, has had her fair share of kitchen mishaps, but the worst one she said was putting cinnamon in her favourite food, spaghetti bolognese.

She added: ’I went for catered accommodation at uni because I can’t cook. But I’ve got to learn this year though because all my roommates are vegetarian and I’m a big meat eater.’

Shellan Leeming, 17, told us that her favourite meal is the classic British dish, bangers and mash.

She said: ’Generally we buy food from somewhere like Shoprite if we’re going to buy local rather than a butcher.

’But we try and get local sausages when we can but it’s not always as easy as it could be I think.’

Her mother Cathryn, from Greeba said that her signature dish is ratatouille.

She explains: ’It’s a mixture of onions, tomatoes, courgettes and peppers, cooked for a long time and then I like to get some aubergines and put them on top with some mozzarella cheese.’

Richard Cretney, 39, loves fajitas but only if they’re hot and spicy. He said: ’I marinate my chicken in spice and then cook them in spice, so it’s really spicy.’

His favourite way to eat ice cream is dipping it into espresso, which in Italian is called affogato.

Ciara Butler from Douglas said that her mum does all the cooking, but everytime she goes for a Chinese takeaway she always orders duck pancakes. Ciara’s signature bake is brownies: ’I really like to bake brownies. I just love chocolate and they’re really nice to eat.’

Her boyfriend Dan Richmond from Ramsey, admitted that he is not much of a chef after telling us that the last meal he ate was jam on toast for dinner the previous night.

They did both agree though that their family’s roast dinner is one of their favourite meals of the week, but who doesn’t love a homemade roast dinner?

l MHKs Geoffrey Boot, Rob Callister and Martyn Perkins are taking part in a Ready Steady Cook-type contest at the Food and Drink Festival at the Villa Marina on September 19 and 20.