Ben’s Starter for Ten (it was Forty Five actually!)

Doncaster College Catering student Ben Cooke has won the title of Yorkshire's Young Chef of the Year at the 'Great Yorkshire Cook-Off'.

The event, hosted at the Crown Inn at Great Ouseburn in North Yorkshire, highlighted the work of three colleges, which had been chosen from all the colleges throughout Yorkshire. Each college was asked to put forward two students' three course menus and the judges chose a starter, main and dessert from all the entries.

Ben, who is 18 and from Rossington near Doncaster, had his starter chosen to serve to the forty-five diners who attended the evening.

The dish consisted of Fillet of Sea Bass served with Baby Watercress, Shaved Asparagus, Pickled Radish with Homemade Piccalilli and Mustard Emulsion.

Ben’s winning dish was chosen out of all the entries by head chef Paul Jackson, who looked at how the students had performed in the kitchen, The diners, who on the evening marked the dishes from one to ten, and a panel of judges who included Industry expert John Moorhouse, Yorkshire Life’s Food and Drink Consultant Annie Stirk, Yorkshire Post’s Food Writer Catherine Scott, and editor and Yorkshire Post contributor Amanda Wragg.

The evening was rounded off with an Auction and over a thousand pounds was collected for the Yorkshire Air Ambulance.

As well as taking home prizes such as a set of professional cooking knifes and signed cookbooks; Ben has also been offered work experience at the Crown Inn, which was Yorkshire’s Pub of the Year for 2011.

Ben said, "Winning was the best bit, I put in hours of practice with my lecturers and fellow student Thomas Bracha, when they said my name I felt such pride. When your dish gets picked it makes all the hard work worthwhile."

Ben has just completed his course of Advanced Professional Cookery Level 2 and will be returning to the College next year to complete Level 3