A BUBBLY pub cook from Strood will be crowned the winner of ITV’s Hell’s Kitchen if her family have anything to do with it.

Kellie Cresswell, of Harvel Avenue, Strood, will battle it out against nine other contestants in the search for the nation’s best chef while her family launch a support campaign.

The mother of two, who cooks at The Ship in Lower Upnor, will compete for the prize of her own exclusive London restaurant under the watchful eye of Gillingham-born TV chef Gary Rhodes and flamboyant French chef Jean-Christophe Novelli.

Rhodes, a former pupil at the Howard School, Rainham, and Novelli, will be training the rookie chefs to create mouth-watering English and French dishes, but they will need to win viewers’ votes to stay the course of the two-week competition.

Kellie beat off competition from thousands of other hopeful contestants auditioning for the part after replying to an advert in a national newspaper.

Her mum Chrissie Murphy is confident her daughter, a former HGV driver for the Army, will also win the affections of viewers.

The family has launched a poster campaign to persuade local people to vote for 28-year-old Kellie.

Chrissie, of Sedge Crescent, Chatham, said: "The whole family are really excited. We will be glued to the TV screen every night.

"Kellie is a real achiever. As well as working full-time she is a great mum, wife and daughter. She has the energy to win and will be able to deal with anything they throw at her.

"Rumour has it that one of the first challenges she will have to face is cutting up a pig’s heart. Kellie served in the army in Bosnia for three years. She had to wring chicken’s necks so this will be nothing to her.

"Kellie is not allowed any contact with her family or friends for two weeks. It will be really hard not seeing her every day and her daughters – Billie, eight and Dannie, 18 months – are already missing her but we all think she can win. Even when she went to the auditions we believed she would get through.

"I hope to get everyone I know voting for Kellie. Our phone bill will be huge but we want her to win so much that it just doesn’t matter."

Kellie will appear on the show at 9pm tonight.