Delia Smith eat your heart out – a former Sheppey schoolgirl has been crowned as Kent’s best young chef.

Eden Allsworth, 14, who used to go to Queenborough Primary, took part in a two-hour cook-off at The View Restaurant on the top floor of K College in TonbridgeNov23.

Among those marking the contestants’ dishes was celebrity chef and Kent restaurateur Richard Phillips.

The Highsted Grammar School pupil was the senior winner, impressing judges with her duo of pan-roasted belly of pork and line-caught seabass with apple wood-smoked mash and medley of autumn vegetables.

As well as the trophies, hampers and certificates, all the finalists were treated to a buffet lunch.

All eight finalists will also be treated to lunch at one of Richard Phillips’ restaurants, while the two winners will devise the menu for the Kent Young Chef Award Charity Dinner in aid of The Heart of Kent Hospice.

It will be held on Thursday, January 24, at The Windmill in Hollingbourne.