Over the last few months, schools across Welwyn Hatfield have been taking part in the ‘Young Chef of the Year’ award, with the competition culminating in a grand final on Friday, February 7.
The finalists, aged nine to 11, will be donning their aprons and competing in an the event hosted by Ridgeway Academy in WGC.
After cooking their menus, the finalists will celebrate the day's achievements with their families, school representatives and guests.
The borough's mayor, Cllr Roger Trigg, will attend the awards ceremony - where the winner of Welwyn Hatfield Young Chef of 2020 will be announced.
The event is being organised and sponsored by The Rotary Club of WGC with support from Waitrose.
The competition has been developed by The Food Teacher team to improve long-term health by educating children about food and nutrition.
It is supported by the College of Medicine and has recently received accreditation from the Nutritional Therapy Education Commission.
Sponsorship from The Restaurant Group plc has supported more than 550 primary school pupils to complete the 'Young Chef of the Year' award in Welwyn Hatfield.
It involved pupils planning and creating a three-course 'meal for their hero' within a £10 budget.
They learnt about making healthy food choices, chef skills, seasonality, cooking methods, food hygiene and safety.
GP Dr Mark Spencer said: "Cooking is great fun and brings families and friends together.
"Getting children interested in cooking and improving their nutritional knowledge is a great initiative."
Herts for Learning also support the award, with lead wellbeing adviser Karin Hutchinson adding: "All our pupils need to learn that eating the right food can bring about major health benefits both physically and mentally.
"The Young Chef of the Year award provides an exciting context for this learning and Herts for Learning are happy to recommend it to schools."
For further information about this award, recipes to try at home and information about the younger (ages six to seven) and youngest (ages three+) chef programmes visit youngchefoftheyear.com.
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