A YOUNG chef from Basingstoke has proved she can stand the heat in the kitchen by reaching the final of a top cookery competition.

Emily Holbrook, from Mozart Close, Brighton Hill, won the Contract Catering category of the British Meat Chef of the Year competition, beating off the chall-enge of more than 300 other entrants.

Emily, who works for an Uxbridge-based catering company, had two hours to prepare her dish at a live "cook-off".

The 25-year-old impressed the judges at the British Meat and Livestock Comm-ission HQ with her dish of slow braised belly pork with Scottish croquettes, apple chutney and honey-glazed parsnips.

"This was my first competition and the cook-off was very nerve-wracking," said Emily, who has been a chef for eight years.

Emily won £500 plus a set of chef's knives. She now goes forward, along with the finalists from six other categories, to a grand final which will take place next month.