A Maidstone housing organisation is backing the county’s official school cookery contest to boost youngsters’ confidence and creativity in the kitchen.

Golding Vision, part of Golding Homes, is supporting Young Cooks as part of its drive to promote healthier lifestyles to residents.

Community development advisor Sarah-Jane Leipnik said: “We understand that a healthy balanced diet for our children is a big step towards wellbeing. Encouraging children, young people and families to get into the kitchen to create and cook healthy meals gives young people a fantastic lesson in preparing nutritious food.

“This is a great project which we are proud to support!”

Entrants - who must be aged between six and 19 years - simply cook a dish they consider to be healthy and delicious and upload a photograph of the meal plus recipe details to the Young Cooks website.

Finalists for the Primary, Secondary, and Family categories will be invited to a MasterChef-style event at East Kent College where they will prepare their signature dishes for a judging panel in a bid to win a share of £500.

Joining Golding Vision on the panel are Macknade Fine Foods, Whole School Meals, Orbit, Three R’s Teacher Recruitment, The Dog at Wingham, Chequers Kitchen Cookery School, Licensing Consultancy Services, The Southern Co-operative, Brakes, and Kent Catering Service.

Young Cooks is organised by the KM Charity Team, a children’s educational charity which provides services for schools to promote child health and wellbeing.

Event organiser Maxine Tarquini of the KM Charity Team said: “Young Cooks is a fantastic way to get young people excited about cooking and healthy eating. They have great fun cooking alongside their friends in school or with their families – plus they get to see their entries on the Young Cooks website as recipe cards for anyone to try out.

“And of course finalists enjoy a once-in-a-lifetime experience preparing their masterpieces in a professional kitchen to stake their claim to the champion’s trophy!”

The overall Young Cooks champion will receive £200 while £150 will go to the Secondary School category winner, £100 to the Family winner, and the Primary School winner will take home £50.

Entries must be received by midnight on Wednesday, November 7 at www.YoungCooks.org.uk