DORSET'S finest food and drink is to be promoted by one of the best in the business – celebrity chef Lesley Waters.

Lesley, who runs a cookery school near Halstock, will be raising awareness of the county's great produce after she was invited to be an ambassador for the organisation Dorset Food & Drink.

An event was held at The Lesley Waters Cookery School at Abbot's Hill Farm to celebrate the occasion.

A total of 30 member businesses joined in the celebration with Lesley, the Dorset Food & Drink team and corporate partners Porter Dodson.

Guests enjoyed a fine selection of canapes – provided of course by organisation members. Canapes were washed down with a Dorset twist on the Bellini cocktail courtesy of Liberty Fields and Furleigh Estate.

Dorset Food & Drink is a non-profit organisation which promotes and supports the county's food and drink business community. It has a special trademarked brand overseen by the Dorset Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty team.

With around 200 member businesses, the organisation covers the whole local food scene from the small kitchen producer to the county’s top brands.

Lesley Waters, well known for her TV appearances, studied French cuisine at Ealing College including time as a chef at the Waldorf Hotel. She won one gold and two silver medals at Hotelympia and was awarded a scholarship to the Hotel Intercontinental, Dusseldorf.

She joined Prue Leith's restaurant and was quickly promoted to senior chef. Lesley then worked as a freelance corporate chef and caterer for government officials before joining Leith's School of Food and Wine as an instructor, rising to head tutor.

In addition to her TV work on cookery programmes Lesley is also the author of several books, a qualified fitness instructor and a mother of two.

She is seen as a perfect culinary ambassador for the county.

Lesley has been charmed by the beauty of west Dorset and inspired by the quality of the fresh local produce available on her doorstep.

Dorset Food & Drink co-ordinator Katharine Wright said: "As a county, Dorset has a fantastic range of fine fresh produce, and is increasingly being known as ‘the larder of the southwest’.

"With outstanding protected landscapes, 8000 years of farming and fishing heritage, market towns, coastal communities, clean seas, rural villages and lively towns it is easy to see why Dorset can produce the wonderful array of local food and drink."

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