Nigella Lawson is headed back to the US for a new series of The Taste, according to reports.

The 54-year-old TV chef appears to have had a ban on her travelling to America overturned after she was stopped from boarding a flight to Los Angeles earlier this year, following her courtroom admission she had taken cocaine.

The Sunday People claimed Nigella's lawyers and ABC television had succeeded in seeking a "waiver of inadmissability" that would allow her to travel to the US for auditions for the third series of The Taste in the autumn.

They quoted a source "close to" the mother-of-two as saying: "It has been a torrid year for Nigella but now things are starting to come together. She is very happy about this."

Nigella has also retweeted casting calls for contestants for the new series of the TV cookery contest on her Twitter page. She is a judge on the show alongside fellow chefs Anthony Bourdain and Ludo Lefebvre.

The self-styled "domestic goddess" admitted to taking cocaine and smoking marijuana at the fraud trial of two former assistants, Elisabetta and Francesca Grillo. She was later barred from boarding a flight from Heathrow to Los Angeles in April.

However, she had already been to the US once after the case and talked about it while also promoting the TV programme. US authorities invited her to apply for a visa soon after the Heathrow incident, promising the matter could be handled "routinely and expeditiously".