Young chefs battle it out for award

The contestants cooked a range of exotic dishes at Shooting Field within a set time and budget.

The judges, Kate Gover, a finalist in the West Sussex Food Awards, from Kate’s Cookhhouse and Alex Tipping from The Fountain at Ashurst looked for exciting uses of healthy, locally produced ingredients, the presentation, taste and balance of dishes from these budding chefs. In making the awards they said that the decisions proved to be a hair splitting exercise.

Peter Firth and Martin Leigh-Pollitt on behalf of Steyning and Henfield Rotary Club commented that many adults would find difficulty in matching the standards of cooking, imagination and presentation.

Benjamin Bower was chosen as the winner, receiving a prize of £40 with Poppy Moore taking the second prize of £20 and in third place Ellie Pointer was awarded £10. Charlie Ansell and Madeleine were both highly commended by the judges.

Heads of Food Technology at the two schools, Samantha Rule and Sarah May, said that those taking part were fantastic, they did it entirely on their own and the dishes they produced was to a very high standard. Everyone was very impressed. All those entered received a certificate of participation and the winner of this local heat is invited to go forward into the District Finals.