Seven secondary schools from Ross-shire provided the recipes for the final of a junior cook competition held in the catering department of Inverness College today (Thursday, 8 June).

Top chefs including Tony Singh - ITV chef of the year and Anne MacKenzie from the prestigious Glenmorangie House at Cadboll in Easter Ross were on hand to carry out the judging in true Lloyd Grossman style.

The teams of two from each of Ross-shire's seven secondary schools won their respective heats to compete in today's final.

The competition has been organised by the Ross and Cromarty Education Business Partnership (EBP) which is funded and supported by Ross and Cromarty Enterprise (RACE). It aims to foster links between education and the world of work and teaches young people about the workplace to help them make informed decisions about their future careers.

Manager Moira Anderson said: "Events like Junior Cook are designed to forge close relationships between education and business as well as being a bit of fun. We decided to run the competition to help make youngsters aware of careers in this sector, to demonstrate the importance of healthy eating and to highlight the sheer variety of produce that is available locally.

"The ingredients for the competition have been kindly supplied by several Ross-shire businesses and chef advisors from local hotels and catering establishments have given up their time to be involved in the competition."

ITV chef of the year Tony Singh said: "It is important that we encourage more young people to think about hospitality as a career - despite all the television programmes about cooking, there is actually a national shortage of chefs. Today's event has proved that there is a wealth of talent out there as well as a real enthusiasm for cooking that needs to be developed and nurtured."

Food and drink development officer at RACE Catherine Brady said: "Ross and Cromarty has a food and drink sector worth millions of pounds to the local economy every year. It is important that this sector continues to attract high calibre people and events like this help youngsters think seriously about careers in this sector."

Moira Anderson added: "The competition has been a resounding success. It would not have been possible if local businesses had not provided the ingredients or advice. The youngsters also deserve to be congratulated on their commitment and high level of enthusiasm they showed throughout the competition. The whole project demonstrates how effective education and business relationships can give significant results for both sides."

"Special thanks goes to Liz Ashburn and Inverness College for hosting the final and Charlie Munro from John M Munro in Dingwall who delivered the ingredients to the schools and the college."

The winners of the junior cook competition were Catherine Hendry and Abigail Field from Ullapool High School who cooked up prawn and coconut fritters with sesame noodles, avocado salsa and hot chilli dipping sauce followed by strawberry soup with shortbread hearts.