Females are getting back in the kitchen

Culinary competition shows top Young Chefs are girls

Move over Jamie and Gordon, the next generation of top chefs are going to be women if the finalists in the Young Chef Challenge are anything to go by. Hundreds of boys and girls aged 11 - 16 entered their own original recipes into the schools cookery competition, and of the forty talented young chefs shortlisted for the semi-finals sixty per cent were girls! Not only did more girls enter the competition, five of the six regional finalists selected by Celebrity Chef James Martin were girls - as was the National Winner. Now Quality Standard beef and lamb, who sponsor the competition, is predicting that this may signal the end of an era of male domination amongst the top chefs and will pave the way for culinary stars of tomorrow to be women.

Now in its forth year, the competition has previously been inundated with entries from talented young boys but 2009 has been a different story. Twenty-four girls were shortlisted for the semi finals where they battled it out in a series of cook-offs all over the country. Recipes were judged on originality, presentation and nutritional value by James Martin and Denise Spencer-Walker from Quality Standard beef and lamb.

James and Denise selected six regional winners, five of which were girls with just one boy from the Midlands earning a Regional Young Chef winner title. The competition proved girls are the best cooks in the Northeast, Northwest, Southwest, Southeast and East of England. Jenna Duckers, aged 13 of the Southwest of England regional heat, went on to be crowned the National Champion, again flying the flag for the girls and proving that the top chefs are not always men.

James Martin said: "The standard of entries in the competition this year was phenomenal and for the first time the regional finals were full of girls! In recent years the competition has been full of talented young boys hoping to following in the footsteps of today's top chefs, but the results show that girls are now leading the way."

Denise Spencer-Walker, Young Chef Challenge judge and Food Advisor to Quality Standard beef and lamb said: "We've been running the competition for four years and 2009 was definitely the year of the girls. We had record numbers of girls entering the competition and for the first time girls were the dominant gender at the regional finals."

The Young Chef Challenge is all about encouraging the cooks of tomorrow to develop their life skills. Quality Standard beef and lamb want to encourage more boys to enter the competition in 2010 to ensure that the top cooks of the future will include both girls and boys.

For further information about the Challenge, to see the finalist recipes or for information on entering in 2010 visit www.simplybeefandlamb.co.uk or www.meatandeducation.com

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