Dinner date for Taste the Nation chef

Trystan Williams, the Welsh headmaster of Springfields School in Calne, successfully bid for the prize in the charity auction held for Dolen Cymru, which builds friendship and understanding between the people of Wales and the country of Lesotho. Graham Tinsley, manager of the Welsh National Culinary Team and co-owner of the Castle Hotel, Conwy and Nanto Hall, Prestatyn, will cater for Mr Williams and the school's senior leadership team. He will cook a starter of pressed terrene of roasted vegetables and goat's cheese with a tomato and basil dressing followed by a main course of char grilled medallion of Welsh Beef with a cassoulet of spring pulses, boulangiere potatoes and cardomom spiced carrots. Dessert is vanilla pannacotta with rhubarb. Tinsley is currently appearing in the Taste the Nation series, in which he is mentoring teams of amateur chefs from Carmarthenshire, Monmouthshire, Denbighshire and Glamorgan in a knockout competition. The chefs must cook dishes using only local ingredients from their home region. "The competition is all about trying to teach amateur chefs to cook food to restaurant standard," Tinsley said. "It was an excellent experience, especially meeting all the other mentor chefs. It makes you appreciate how much work goes in to making a TV programme."