At the cook off at Manchester College's Fielden Campus on June 9, the contestants had to prepare and serve a three course meal for two using north west produce costing up to £25, and Postlethwaite's menu of locally sourced products won over the judges. The 21 year old produced Muncaster lobster, seashore herbs, Pink Fir potatoes, cockles and radish, followed by rump of home reared mutton, lamb cheeks, sweetbreads, Collie Wobbles ale, asparagus, goat's curd, cauliflower and wild garlic. Dessert was summer berries, sheep's milk ice cream, elderflower and wood sorrel. The wood sorrel and wild garlic were picked in the woods surrounding Castle Green Hotel, while everything from strawberries, blueberries, elderflower and gooseberries to radishes and chives came from his parents' farm near Kendal where he lives or his nan's garden. He also foraged seashore herbs such as sea aster, purslane and samphire in the Lake District. "I'm lucky enough to have woods where I work, but I did have to be shown what can and can't be used. For this menu, I wanted my ingredients to be as natural as possible," he said. "I was happy to be runner up last year but to actually win is amazing. I did a few things different this year, which I think gave me an edge. Instead of using a water bath for instance, which doesn't involve much skill to prepare, I went for lobster, which demonstrates a more skilful technique. "I also used some classic techniques with a modern twist this year, like digging out my mum's pressure cooker from the cupboard to braise my lamb cheeks, which reduced the cooking time and sealed in the flavour really well. This amused the judges a bit." His prize is a two week stage at a top European restaurant, plus a year's Craft Guild of Chefs membership and a set of professional Chroma chefs' knives. He also automatically qualified for entry into the Craft Guild's National Young Chef of the Year contest at The Restaurant Show in October, plus a place in the final of Visionary Dining Chef of the Year in which he will compete against head and executive chefs. This year's judging panel again comprised Brian Mellor, competition organiser and British Masterchef, Steven Doherty, chairman of the Gordon Ramsay Scholarship, and Nigel Crane, managing director of Essential Cuisine. Joining the panel for the first time was Lisa Allen, head chef at Northcote in the Lake District and Thom Hetherington, managing director of Holden Media. Crane said Andrew was extremely creative in his approach and abided by the golden rules of great cooking. "He confidently demonstrated a host of skills and some classic approaches but, most importantly, kept it hot, simple, local and in season," he said. "Andrew is a down to earth, talented chef who clearly enjoyed the challenge of sourcing ingredients on home turf, and could quite easily step into the role of executive chef at a restaurant if he wanted to. He deserves to go on to great things and we wish him the best." Eighteen year old Danielle Heron from Manchester College, a second year catering student and trainee chef at Ramson of Ramsbottom, Bury, was runner up. The other finalists were: Cheshire 's Andrew Sheridan, Lancashire's Lewis Gallagher and Merseyside's Rikki Vidamour.