Celebrity Masterchef contestant Donna Air says she’s cooking up a mess!

SHE’S a self-confessed tidy freak — so how did Donna Air find herself amidst culinary carnage?

Welcome to the highly-stressed world of the MasterChef kitchen!

Donna is one of the famous faces being put under the microscope when Celebrity MasterChef returns to delight its millions of fans this week.

“I don’t know what people will be expecting from me — but there is a LOT of mess,” laughs Donna, 36.

“That’s really unusual for me because at home I keep a very tidy kitchen. I get very irritated when people make a mess.

“It was just the sheer panic that set in. There was stuff everywhere. It was a real riot.”

Sinitta, Alexis Conran, Tommy Cannon and Marcus Butler are those sharing the TV kitchen with Donna in the first of four weeks of heats.

Blue singer Simon Webbe and Strictly pro dancer hunk Gleb Savchenko are among the others facing John Torode and Gregg Wallace’s beady eye and judgment in the coming weeks.

“It was terrifying and I wasn’t sure when I was asked at first,” admits Donna, who’s dating James Middleton, the brother of the Duchess of Cambridge.

“I do love the show — I think everyone loves MasterChef.

“My first thought was whether I could fit it in, the second was whether I’d embarrass my daughter and the third was how scary it would be.

“So I called a few friends who had done the show and they all said I had to do it and I wouldn’t regret it.

“They said I’d learn loads and that was so true.

“You pick up so much along the way and John and Gregg give you tips.

“It’s certainly not a wasted experience.”

And she says that the terror was tempered by finding she got a real buzz from each fresh challenge.

“It was so much fun,” she says. “Once you’ve done it once, you want to do it again.

“It really is quite addictive.

“Cooking is fun.

“I do the cooking at home and I’ve always loved feeding people.

“I think food brings people together.”

Pre-show practice at home went down a treat with the staff in Donna’s office, who got to tuck in, and her 12-year-old daughter Freya, who reaches her teenage years this summer.

“She’s great, I really enjoy hanging out with her,” admits Donna, whose “day job” these days involves a lot of styling work with top fashion houses and various glossy magazines.

“She is really funny.

“She’s such good company, I don’t hang out with her because I have to. I do it because I enjoy it.

“She knows her own mind and she doesn’t do anything she doesn’t want to.

“We have similar interests, but I wouldn’t push her in any particular direction.

“I’d support whatever she wants, but she’s got a fair bit of time to figure it out.”

MasterChef BBC1, Wednesday, June 22, 8pm

Watch our man Bill take on the Masterchef kitchen: