A HEALTHY cook off saw school pupils from Newport create a dish to be judge with just one taking the winning title.

With healthy eating one of our government’s top priorities, Newport’s Cookedup cooking and nutrition school, sought to engage with young people on the issue through a competition launched in September.

The Healthy Cook-Off was directed at primary school children and in October, Healthy Cooking chefs went into schools to talk to the budding chefs about the eatwell plate, healthy eating principle.

Schools across the Newport West area were completely engaged and the young chefs in year five had so many ideas and over 100 healthy ideas for starters, mains and desserts were submitted.

The finalists were then invited to a cook-off on December 7, where they were asked to demonstrate their skills and compete for the Healthy Cook-Off trophy.

Taking part was Gaer Primary School’s Kyan Paders, Maesglas School’s Caylla Smith, St Davids School’s Amelia Pearce and Duffryn School’s Lousha Barton.

Jo Greenaway, the managing director at Cookedup, said: “It was a wonderful opportunity to work with these young chefs both within the schools and at the finals.

“Engaging in healthy eating at a practical level such as this is simply the best way to build knowledge and create momentum. We hope that events like this will become a regular feature in the fight to beat childhood obesity in Wales"

Taking the winning trophy was Kyan who was handed the award by Nick Scott from Newport Gwent Dragons.