CULINARY crackerjacks from York have been helping BBC2’s Hairy Bikers record their popular cooking TV series.

The Raman family from Strensall, is in the running to be crowned as the country’s best culinary relatives in a search for Britain’s best cooking family in The Hairy Bikers’ Cook Off today at 5.15pm.

Meanwhile, Sophie Jewett, the York-based chocolatier from Little Pretty Things, will also appear on the Hairy Bikers’ Christmas special on Sunday at 8pm, demonstrating how to make delicious macaroons.

The Raman family, who sell their homemade relishes online at ramans.co.uk and at events like York Food Festival, were given a “wild card” entry to the finals in a last minute twist to the cook off.

Priya Raman, 35, and her two aunts, Rajee and Geeta, originally competed in one of the earlier heats on the daily cooking show, which began its search in October.

Despite impressing the Hairy Bikers Simon King and Dave Myers with their authentic south Indian vegetarian cuisine and making it through to the semi-finals, the Ramans failed to get their final courgette on the plate in a seven-minute supper challenge.

Priya said: “It’s an incredible honour for me and my family to be brought back into the competition and I’m so proud to be cooking alongside my aunts, as it’s the women in my family who really inspired me.

“They taught me to love and experiment with food and embrace the rich and varied ingredients that are used into south Indian cooking.”

Sophie Jewett was invited by the programm’s makers to attend an event held at Burton Agnes Hall, which was open to fans of the show, while the Hairy Bikers filmed cookery demonstrations for the series.

Sophie, who was recommended to the show by a contact, was asked to cook macaroons and then joined the Hairy Bikers – Dave Myers and Simon King – for Christmas dinner.

Sophie showed them her simple recipe for pretty, coloured macaroon shells with a gooey centre.

“The thing I usually specialise in is chocolate so I wanted to make macaroons with a twist, to show the versatility of using whatever flavours you’ve got in the cupboard,” she said.