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Contest rewards healthy home cooking

Helping children to enjoy nutritious and delicious meals is a sentiment close to the heart of a Deal-based catering business – and the reason it is urging young people to enter the Young Cooks contest.

Julia Hallett of Whole School Meals, which is supporting the Young Cooks contest.
Julia Hallett of Whole School Meals, which is supporting the Young Cooks contest.

Julia Hallett of Whole School Meals is a member of the judging panel and a keen supporter of the annual competition, which is open to entries until November 7.

Whole School Meals is a social enterprise that provides freshly prepared, nourishing, and tasty meals for the school community in East Kent.

Julia said: “We feel it’s so important to encourage children to learn to cook nice healthy meals – either on their own or with their families – because it sets them up for the rest of their lives.”

Young Cooks is open to entries from young people aged between six and 19 years and has three categories: Primary School, Secondary School, and Families for adult-and-child pairings.

Entrants are required to prepare one or two dishes – depending on category – and upload photographs of their meals to the Young Cooks website along with written details of their recipes.

The overall Young Cooks champion will receive the top prize of £200. Fifty pounds will go to the winning Primary School pupil and £150 will be awarded to the top Secondary School pupil. The Family category winner will take home £100.

Young Cooks is organised by children’s educational charity the KM Charity Team in a bid to tempt young people to get creative in the kitchen and learn about healthy options and cooking to a budget.

Event organiser Maxine Tarquini of the KM Charity Team said: “Families and schools play a key role in giving children and teenagers confidence in the kitchen, so we hope that teachers, parents and other family members will encourage young people to submit an entry while there’s still time.”

Joining Whole School Meals on the judging panel are Macknade Fine Foods, Golding Vision (part of Golding Homes), Orbit, Three R’s Teacher Recruitment, The Dog at Wingham, Chequers Kitchen Cookery School, Licensing Consultancy Services, The Southern Co-operative, Brakes, and Kent Catering Service.

Finalists will enjoy the thrill of a MasterChef-style event where they will prepare their menus for the judges using professional catering facilities at East Kent College.

For more information, including viewing previous entries, or submitting an entry, visit www.YoungCooks.org.uk before the deadline of midnight on Wednesday, November 7.

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