SUFFOLK'S teenage answer to Gordon Ramsey or Jamie Oliver is to represent the region at a major cooking competition.

Laurence Cawley

SUFFOLK'S teenage answer to Gordon Ramsey or Jamie Oliver is to represent the region at a major cooking competition.

Lydia Eagle, a student at East Bergholt High School, won the district final of Rotary Young Chef 2009, which was held at West Suffolk College in Bury St Edmunds on Saturday.

Her mussels in white wine sauce, roast breast of Gressingham duck with a port jus and chocolate fondant with honey ice cream in a brandy snap biscuit wowed the judges and paved the way for her to take on seven other contestants from Essex and North London for the regional title in two weeks' time.

She was one of eight contestants from Suffolk, Norfolk and Cambridgeshire who battled out on Saturday.

Their task was to dish up a three course meal for two for just �14 and within two hours.

Organiser Paul Dover said: “It went supremely well. The standards were incredibly high and, bearing in mind these were children aged between 14 and 17 years old, they do some very imaginative cooking and tasting some of the resulting meals I can say the results were incredible.

“It makes judging very difficult.”

The judges at the event were Peter Senior, a former general manager at Trusthouse Forte, Malcolm Long, a retired chef lecturer, and Steven Welton, of the Sanctuary Restaurant in Ipswich. The runner up on Saturday was Joshua Green from Wisbech.