Jennifer Pooley showed she knows her onions - and her sweet potato and butternut squash - when she won a young chef competition last week.

The Marlborough Science Academy student was the winner of the ninth annual Rotary Young Chef Competition which was held at Oaklands College.

Four schools participated- St Albans High School for Girls, Beaumont, Marlborough and Verulam Schools - and entrants were tasked with preparing and presenting a starter and main course for two people within 90 minutes and costing less than £15.

Jennifer’s prize-winning dishes were sweet potato and butternut squash soup, followed by smoked salmon and lemon risotto

In second place was Amanda Garcia of St Albans High School for Girls who produced cream of courgette soup followed by pan seared salmon with yoghurt and tomato sauce on a bed of tagliatelle.

The winner’s salver and certificates were presented by the Mayor of St Albans, Cllr Frances Leonard, who said: “I was really impressed with the standard of the cooking on display at the Rotary Young Chef Competition. We often watch cooking programmes on TV, but not many people take inspiration from them and produce such accomplished, tasty dishes as these young chefs have done.”

The judges were Gopi Chandran, executive chef at Sopwell House Hotel, Paul Wood, food technology lecturer at Oaklands College and Peter Knight, food technology lecturer at West Herts College.