Aspiring chefs dished up the meal of their lives today in a bid to impress the professionals in a national cookery competition.

A local round of the annual Rotary Young Chef Competition is being staged this morning by Marlborough Rotarians and Pewsey Vale School.

The student adjudged as the cream of the school’s food technology department will progress onto the regional final at Cheltenham early next year.

First, though, they will have had to have won over two distinguished chefs from the area: Andrew McNaughton, head chef at The Bell at West Overton, and Guy Manning, a Michelin-starred chef from the Red Lion at East Chisenbury.

Gerry Hooper, of the Rotary Club of Marlborough and District, said: “This is a major occasion in Pewsey Vale School, which has been very successful in previous years.”

Competing students have been taught by food technology department head Brigid Sparke, who has steered a number of cookery students to successful careers.

Prizes and certificates were to be presented by Marlborough club president Howard Small.