Birmingham business leader Mike Olley hoped to have the Midas touch when he took part in a TV cooking show – and used real gold leaf as an ingredient.

Broad Street Manager Mike is one of the hosts throwing a dinner party in a bid to win £1,000 in Sunday’s episode of the Channel 4 series Come Dine With Me.

But although he pushed the boat out with his luxury ingredients, including a £50 bottle of champagne and a sprinkling of 22 carat edible gold on his dessert, his guests were more interested in arguing than eating.

His dinner party, on the last night of the week, descended into a slanging match between the other contestants, who accused 31-year-old events organiser Claudine Stevens of rudeness and turning her nose up at their food.

Mike, a former city councillor, invited Claudine, 24-year-old hairdresser Katie Smith and Kishor Paw to his Sutton Coldfield home.

Father-of-four Mike, 48, who’s married to Lorraine, was a last-minute contestant – and went into it having never seen the show.

He said: “My colleague Alan Sartori was asked to do it, then the week before filming he changed his mind.

“I was trying to persuade him to do it when he said ‘Why don’t you?’.

So I agreed, even though I had no idea what I was letting myself in for. I really enjoyed it, but it was proper hard work. We spent hours filming, they shot so much more than you will see on the programme.”