ONE of the region’s best school chefs will be cooking up a storm for Bolton youngsters.

Michaela Gore will be treating pupils from Thomas Chequerbent School, in Westhoughton, to a Pirates Of The Caribbean lunch.

She is a regional finalist for the School Chef of the Year 2013 competition, which takes place at Manchester College on Friday, March 15.

School chefs will showcase their skills to produce a two-course meal that would appeal to an 11-year-old pupil, with a maximum food cost of £1.50 per head, in one-and-a-half hours.

As a warm-up, on Tuesday, Michaela is cooking her dishes for her pupils to sample.

She will make spicy chicken meatballs with vegetable cous cous garnished with plantain, known as potatoes of the Caribbean and which has inspired the theme, and coriander. It will be followed by strawberries layered with yoghurt and a cherry ginger cookie.

As well as the taste testing, there will be themed competitions and lessons. Kitchen staff and pupils will also dress up as pirates with the school dining room and kitchen being transformed into the Caribbean theme.