William Leigh has won a MasterChef meets The Apprentice-style contest to become the new taste assistant for Green & Black's.

Leigh, a food writer from South London, was selected from thousands of applicants who took part in a competition launched by the chocolate maker last October.

Leigh, who lists chocolate as "one of my two favourite foods alongside steak", now works alongside the company's head of taste Micah Carr-Hill, who has spent 11 years creating all the brands' chocolate bars and products.

As taste assistant, he is expected to help develop new recipes and flavour combinations and is already working on a new Green & Black's bar scheduled to hit shelves in September.

The recruitment process for the role was tough, Leigh said. "There were around 3,000 applicants who were whittled down to 20, who later went through to the first round where we had to undergo a taste test.

"Those who made it through then had a cook-off challenge. We had to create a single dish that we thought represented Green & Black's Fairtrade and organic ethics in an hour. I used two of the Green & Black's chocolates the Milk and Dark 70% and made a ganache with a sea salt caramel and hazelnut crumble."

He added: "My friends told me that I have the best job in the world and I'd have to agree with them."