The best school chef: school dinners definitely didn't used to look like this!

Tracy Dawson from Local Food Links (LFL), a Bridport based company which has now expanded across the whole county, impressed the judges last week, earning her a Highly Commended Award - an accolade considered outstanding for her second entry in the competition.

Tracy’s strawberry dream dessert is a light and fluffy strawberry mousse on a crispy cocoa base topped with a layer of fresh strawberries. Every mouthful is both soft and crunchy and combines strawberries with chocolate, both flavours that are loved by children. The recipe is both low fat and low sugar which impressed the judges who thought it tasted absolutely delicious.

For her main course Tracy served a mild beef and tomato curry with colourful rice, raita, cauliflower and peas and a homemade naan bread which also attracted lots of positive comments from the judges.

Tracy said: “I am really pleased to have won this award because I particularly enjoy making puddings in the LFL kitchens. The School Chef of the Year competition is great fun and I really enjoyed the day.”

Caroline Morgan, Chief Executive of Local Food Links, added: “I’m absolutely delighted that Tracy has won this award and that the quality of LFL school meals has been recognised within the industry.

“We are very proud of the meals we serve and would love to speak to other Dorset schools that would like to work in partnership with us.”

Local Food Links began as soup and a roll and a slice of cake one day a week at Bridport Primary School has grown into a social enterprise supplying thousands of hot school meals every day 33 schools across Dorset.

Currently the company is serving around 3,000 freshly prepared hot school meals every day to 33 schools across Dorset, from four kitchens based in Bridport, Dorchester, Blandford and Shillingstone.

And 78 per cent of ingredients are purchased from Dorset suppliers.

The company has recently celebrate its tenth birthday.