VIDEO: Success on the menu for young chefs (From Thisisdorset)

VIDEO: Success on the menu for young chefs

10:00am Saturday 12th January 2013 in Latest By Steven Smith

YOUNG chefs cooked up at storm in Bournemouth yesterday to bowl over competition judges.

The Rotary Young Chef competition held its local area finals at Bournemouth and Poole College and judges were left with some tough choices to determine their winner.

Nine finalists aged 13-16 from Poole High School, St Peter’s, Avonbourne, The Grange, Bournemouth School and Talbot Heath took part.

They had 90 minutes to create a two-course meal for two people, costing no more than £6 a head.

After deliberations the judges – Gary Kilminster from the college, Bournemouth Rotary president Gill Lanning and Colin Nash, head chef at the Three Tuns in Bransgore – chose 14-year-old Alex Murphy, from Poole High, as their winner.

He will go on to the district finals at Ferndown Upper School on February 23 and it is hoped that there will be space for 13-year-old Jemima Lewis, from Talbot Heath, and 14-year-old Oliver Turner, from Bournemouth School, who finished third and second respectively, to join him.

Alex, who cooked pheasant wrapped in pancetta with green beans and potato gratin followed by creme brulee, said: “I didn’t think I was going to win because there were some good dishes.”

Organiser Mike Preen, from Bournemouth Rotary Club, added: “The judges have had a difficult job. The standard is very high, surprisingly high.”