24 May 2013

On Sunday 19 May, Raymond Blanc joined fellow judges Times food writer Giles Coren, Times Food Editor Tony Turnbull, Times Weekend section editor Lesley Thomas, John Vincent and Henry Dimbleby and chefs from Leon Restaurants. at the Times/Leon Cook 5 Competition.

The competition was launched to inspire children under the age of 15 to learn to cook five different savoury dishes. The website www.cook5.co.uk gave aspiring young chefs 15 recipes to start them off, and the opportunity to upload photographs of their cooked dishes, plus any original dishes they had created. There were prizes for all those who successfully cooked and uploaded photos of five different dishes.

There have been monthly prizes for the 'most liked' dish. For the grand final, winners in three different age categories were invited to spend a night in London at the One Aldwych Hotel and then a day at the Food at 52 Cookery School, where they would cook their winning dishes for the judges including Raymond and Giles Coren.

After cooking their dishes, Raymond then cooked two dishes for the winners, and they were presented with their prizes including cookery books. The winners were

Laura Townsend, 8 and under (see Laura's blog here including her report on her prize day)
Mia Bhandari, 9-12 years old
Poppy Carter, 13-16 years old


Mia, Poppy and Laure begin their preparations, watched by Giles Coren


RB lends Laura a hand with her squid


Raymond asks Mia what she is preparing


RB and GIles Coren start the tasting...


...and carry on...


...more enthusiastic tasters....


judges and prize winners all trying everything


Raymond begins his demonstration


Showing the girls the vibrant green pistou for his soup


Signing the prizewinners' aprons

For more information:

www.cook5.co.uk

www.cookat52.co.uk

www.leonrestaurants.co.uk

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