Simon Cowell called the chefs "weirdly fascinating"

Aldo Zilli, Paul Rankin, Ross Burden and Jean-Christophe Novelli lost out in the public vote on the ITV programme.

One of the judges, Louis Walsh, told them: "I do like the ties and suits, but that's about all I like."

The quartet sang Andy Williams' Can't Take My Eyes Off You and swivelled their hips to Ricky Martin's Livin' La Vida Loca.

Their exit leaves England and Bath rugby player Matt Stevens, former EastEnders star Lucy Benjamin and Radio 1 DJ Chris Moyles to compete in Sunday night's semi-final.

However, the chefs did win praise for their entertainment value. Their mentor, Simon Cowell, said: "I would not want to tune into the show tomorrow night without you.

"Your vocals go beyond horrible but there is something weirdly fascinating about you."

After being voted off, Zilli admitted: "We didn't actually think that we were going to stay further than Monday night."