Young masterchefs demonstrated their new-found cooking prowess by serving up a treat for family, friends and teachers.

More than 20 invited guests sampled the delicious food prepared by children from P7 at St Ronan’s School, Innerleithen.

The youngsters learned their kitchen skills in a 12-week cookery programme organised by social enterprise You Can Cook.

The Peebles-based company has been running the project since last year and proof of its success has been the 100% attendance rate.

At the end of the project there was the selection of 10 masterchefs who had demonstrated culinary talent and were dedicated participants throughout the course.

Bosco Santimano, the founding director of You Can Cook, said: “The project has been set up and devised according to the needs of the group and we at You Can Cook believe that for a project to succeed, we had to give the young people responsibility for making it work.

“The dedication and motivation shown every week to learn new recipes and skills speaks volume about the kids’ abilities to shine if given a chance to showcase what they can do.

“Family members and teachers thanked us for giving an opportunity to the kids to learn life skills but also to enjoy and have fun while cooking. Many of the kids now help their families at home by showing off their new skills at cooking!” Youth worker Susan Moncur paid tribute to volunteers Chloe Downs, 18, and 17-year-old Callum Frame, who dedicated so much of their time to assist the children.

“Callum and Chloe have helped them to work effectively as a team and they all achieved their goal this week when they planned, prepared, cooked and served their culinary delights to invited guests,” she said You Can Cook trainer Alex Wilson added: “Chloe and Callum have attended our cookery sessions offering another perspective to our young crowd. They endorse the message that cooking is fun and offer support to a large group. They get involved and motivate the kids by demonstrating and tasting, especially Chloe. It has been fun and interesting to have their influence.

“We had a kiddie who turned up saying he was hungry and hadn’t had anything to eat all day. Chloe said we have an egg and some milk and we can make scrambled egg, which we had made in our first session. That was all we had left but she immediately got to it and produced something to eat in five minutes. One hungry kid was happier than he had been.” Ms Moncur added: “At Innerleithen Youth Group we actively encourage our senior members to take on more responsibility and volunteer their time and energy to educate and help the younger members.

“At the moment we have Callum and Chloe who are peer educators and voluntary Young Leaders. I had the pleasure of taking them along to the recent Saltire Awards event in the Volunteer Hall, Galashiels, where they both received awards for their contribution and commitment to their Youth Group. Chloe for volunteering 250 hours and Callum for 150 hours.”