THE winner of The Hunts Post Young Chef Competition was Charlotte Ward, 12, from Kimbolton School. Four finalists competed for the title. Charlotte s prize includes helping chefs at the Old Bridge in Huntingdon cook her two course meal for herself and thr

THE winner of The Hunts Post Young Chef Competition was Charlotte Ward, 12, from Kimbolton School.

Four finalists competed for the title. Charlotte's prize includes helping chefs at the Old Bridge in Huntingdon cook her two course meal for herself and three members of her family. To enter the competition the contestants had to create two courses for two people for £10, using local ingredients.

Charlotte's winning recipes were chicken stuffed with cream cheese, mozzarella, parmesan, basil and chopped Parma ham, wrapped in Parma ham and sprinkled with parmesan cheese. This was served with new potatoes in mint and butter and a basil and pea mash. Her dessert was a shortbread and apple stack with vanilla-fragranced cream and a toffee sauce.

The other finalists were Rebecca Anderson, 11, from Holme who served griddled loin of pork with carrots, asparagus, apple sauce and gravy, followed by treacle sponge and custard; Claire Greenland, 13, who presented lamp chops with mash and cabbage, decorated with bacon strips and served with redcurrant sauce, followed by rhubarb crumble with crème anglaise; and Tegan Fox, 11, from Ramsey Mereside, who entered tagliatelli with meatballs made with mixed herbs, eggs and breadcrumbs, followed by brandy snap baskets filled with strawberries covered in white and dark chocolate.

The judges were chef John Beltham, who works for Chartwells as catering manager at Framlingham College, and Lisa Taylor, a scientist at Anglian Water, sponsors of the competition.

Mr Beltham said: "The competition was very, very close. Every dish had its good points. Rebecca's home-made steamed pudding was just lovely. It is good to see traditional cooking methods being used. Tegan made brandy snap biscuits these are first class and this is technically a very difficult thing to do, also just lovely. Claire's presentation was very good. Her rhubarb crumble had just the right balance between sharpness and sweetness. All her dishes were very good. The redcurrant sauce worked really well with the lamb.

"Charlotte's shortbread was crisp and delicious and her toffee sauce was delightful, but what won it for her was that the chicken was just so tasty - it can be such a bland meat, but the cheeses and the Parma ham really made it interesting, and we really liked the pea mash with basil - that just swung it."

A delighted Charlotte told The Hunts Post: "I started cooking with my granny, probably making a sponge cake and biscuits. I love cooking because you can do so many different things.