Nursery chef is national finalist

Scrumptious Starters and Delicious Desserts may not be what one is expecting from nursery food, but Beverley's Busy Bees chef Andy Render has been named as one of six finalists in a competition of that name, which was held across 238 nurseries in the UK.

The competition encourages all Busy Bees nursery chefs to come up with a delicious starter or dessert, using fresh and healthy ingredients, to be included in the winter menu.

The chefs were given ingredients such as mackerel, turkey and courgettes for the starter, and a selection of fruit and coconut for the dessert.

With the help of some of the nursery children, Andy created a starter of pickled mackerel mousse, which saw him to the final. This is going to be held at the Dean Clough Cookery School in Halifax on 17 July.

Andy, who has been working at the Beverley nursery for six months, said: "The dish was very well received and the children liked the combination."