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Demi-Louise Maguire and Bronagh McHeading, both 15-year-old pupils at St Genevieve’s High School in Belfast, have been named the 2015 winners of the Kitchen Whizz Kids cookery contest, beating stiff competition from seven other schools in Northern Ireland.

The winning meal, which was created on a £7.50 budget, was a marinated chicken and cherry tomato chargrilled kebab served with couscous and homemade flatbread.

Kitchen Whizz kids is organised by the Mount Charles Group and is supported by Business in the Community. The cooking competition aims to promote healthy eating and generate interest in the catering industry.

Cathal Geoghegan, managing director of the Mount Charles Group, said: The standard of cooking this year simply exceeded anything we’ve seen in this competition before. The flavours, the skill, the teamwork and the presentation from each of our finalists was just superb.

“What each of these teams have demonstrated is just how achievable it is to eat well on a budget – it just takes a bit of creativity and confidence to try new things.

“For us the competition is incredibly important on two levels. It allows us to use our expertise to give something back to the community and it creates an opportunity for young people to enhance and develop their skills, while developing a better understanding of what eating well really means.

“The competition is also about nurturing new talent and making young people aware of the career possibilities within the hospitality industry and the contribution they could make to it in the future.”

The schools in the final were – Abbey Community College (Newtownabbey); Aquinas Grammar School (Belfast); Ballymena Academy (Ballymena); De La Salle College (Belfast); Rathmore Grammar School (South Belfast); St Dominic’s High School (Belfast); St Genevieve’s High School (Belfast) and St Malachy’s College (Belfast).