One of the district's finest chefs is in with a chance to go down in history, after reaching the regional heats of a prestigious scholarship competition.

Greg Anderson, who is the head chef at Michelin-starred country house hotel Morston Hall, has reached the final 16 of the Roux Scholarship.

The winner of the scholarship, judged by a panel of world famous chefs such as Alain Roux and Michel Roux Jr, is given the chance to spend three months in any three star Michelin restaurant in the world.

Mr Anderson, 28, said: 'I've got to this stage in the competition before, but I'm a lot more relaxed this time.

'I made a stupid mistake last time but I'm much calmer this year. I will have practiced my dish four times by the time of the competition on March 8.'

Mr Anderson, who lives in Thursford, works under chef patron Galton Blackiston. He said: 'Galton has been hugely supportive as he always is.'

Mr Anderson will be creating his dish of Sea Bream with Brancaster mussels, smoked artichoke and a souffle for the heats next week.

He said: 'The whole ethos at Morston is to keep it simple. When I entered my recipe I wanted to reflect that, and added local ingredients such as the mussels, as well as some ingredients which we forage from the sea front 300 yards from our kitchen.'

Alain Roux said: 'My top tip for candidates would be preparing your recipe; we can tell if you've never done it, if you've done it once or twice or more than that.'

Mr Roux continued: 'I'm looking for everything when I'm judging candidates; the attitude in the kitchen, how the chefs follow their recipe, whether they cause a lot of waste, cleanliness in the kitchen, then the presentation and of course the taste.

'It doesn't have to be using all this new technology, it can be a classic, but we want to see flare.'

The chef patron of the Michelin three star The Waterside Inn, added: 'Once I knew that Greg worked at Morston Hall I could see in his recipe where he came from.'

Mr Anderson will find out next Thursday whether he has reached the finals on March 26.