THE culinary expertise of a member of staff at Knox Academy has been recognised after she scooped the Scottish School Cook of the Year 2016 award.

Maria Millar, who has worked at the Haddington secondary school for just a year, cooked up a storm to beat off strong competition from other school cooks from all over the country in the final of the competition.

The final, which took place at the Cook School Scotland in Crosshouse, near Kilmarnock, saw each cook challenged to create a main course and dessert within 90 minutes.

And if that was not tough enough, they were allowed a maximum of £1.60 for the cost of the meal and all entrants were encouraged to use at least one item of Scottish produce in both courses.

Maria, who is originally from Venezuela and moved to Scotland 11 years ago, is well known at the school for her healthy and creative school meals.

On the day of the competition, she wowed the judges with a menu of chicken enchilada with coleslaw, followed by strawberry cheesecake made with a wide variety of locally-sourced ingredients.

The mum-of-two told the Courier: “I was very nervous to begin with but when I started cooking I just blocked it out and pretended I was at work.

“I’m used to cooking quickly so I still had time left at the end.

“I’m very proud to have been given the opportunity to participate on behalf of East Lothian and my school.”

Councillor Shamin Akhtar, the local authority’s spokeswoman for education and children’s services, said: “I think it’s absolutely fantastic that Maria has won this award for East Lothian.

“It’s so important that children are given nutritious food that they can really enjoy during the school day.

“We regularly seek feedback from parents and pupils on the quality of meals and are always looking for ways to improve.

“Maria’s award is an endorsement of our efforts to make children and young people across East Lothian healthier and happier and we are very lucky to have her!”

Meanwhile, Maria’s success was also noted in the Scottish Parliament.

MSP Iain Gray tabled a motion congratulating Maria and said: “Maria’s victory in the School Cook of the Year competition was a wonderful personal achievement for her and something of which she and the school can be very proud.

“It was also a really positive success for East Lothian’s school cooks.

“I’ve tabled this motion to acknowledge Maria’s individual success and also to praise all of the school cookery staff for the hard work they put in to creating healthy and nutritious meals for the county’s children.”