Royal honour for Big Lunch West winners

A Somerset teacher met Queen Camilla in London after winning a contest to create shareable dishes for people to cook and eat together.

- 

Camilla attended a community lunch at Canary Wharf to celebrate community friendship and nature at Eden Dock.

Melanie Booth and student 15-year-old Ben Le Bas, both from North Hill House School in Frome, made it to the top five of The Big Lunch Recipe Search, a national initiative led by the Eden Project to find the country’s most shareable dishes.

Their winning entries - butternut squash empanadas and strawberry and vanilla cheesecake - impressed a panel of judges from the Eden Project, Co-op and Greene King.

The competition, which aims to encourage more people to cook from scratch and connect through food, was launched following research by YouGov for the Eden Project.