STOURBRIDGE schoolgirl Neve Doy has landed a coveted apprenticeship with a top chef after winning a Young Chef of the Year competition.

The 14-year-old Ridgewood High School pupil won a new iPhone, £500 of cookery equipment for her school and a morning of work experience with Michelin-starred Chef, Glynn Purnell, after she won the

University College Birmingham’s annual competition.

Her homemade ricotta and spinach ravioli with tomato and maple sauce and maple and pecan pie with vanilla parfait went down a treat with the judges at the event on January 26, supported by Maple from Canada, which challenged students to cook a main course and a dessert - with one incorporating pure Canadian maple syrup - in 90 minutes.

Neve said of her win: “I’m really passionate about cooking and I worked really hard to prepare for the final. I didn’t expect to win at all, but I’m really pleased that all the hard work paid off and the judges liked my dishes.”

As a result of her win, Maple from Canada’s UK chef ambassador David Colcombe will also perform two maple cookery demonstrations at the Wollaston school in 2019.

Fellow Ridgewood pupil Millie Fellows, aged 15, came third in the competition, which is now in its third year.

Rebecca Lawrence, head of faculty for creative and technical studies at Ridgewood, said both girls are studying GCSE food preparation and nutrition and she added: "The school's really proud of their success. They worked really hard and the hard work paid off."

Neil Rippington, dean of the College of Food at UCB - who was on the judging panel, said: “Young Chef of the Year is an incredibly fun way to involve young people in practical cookery but also to point them in the direction of careers within the hospitality industry.

“The prizes on offer for a competition of this scale are second-to-none and the standard of this year’s incredible and innovative dishes have certainly matched that.”

Fellow judge David Colcombe added: “All the young chefs managed to use their maple products extremely well, the flavours they created were delicious.”