School cook in Crawley wins national sausage contest

Gill Dudman's 'roasted sausage Autumn bake' wowed the judges who were looking for ideas for nutritionally balanced sausage recipes, including at least one portion of vegetables, fruit or salad ingredients, to be served as part of school meals. Dudman has won a £100 shopping voucher, a microscope for her school, a framed certificate, medal and a £100 cheque to donate to the Cystic Fibrosis Trust – the lead charity for British Sausage Week. As part of the prize, the school also receives the ingredients to be able to serve the dish to all pupils at a lunchtime of their choice. Dudman, who has been a school cook for 23 years is delighted with the award: "Roasted vegetables are very nutritious and I already know that the children love them when they are cooked this way, so combining them with good quality sausages seemed to be the perfect recipe for the competition. All the children adore sausages and when we served the meal during Sausage Week they really couldn't get enough!" Tony Goodger, BPEX foodservice trade manager, added: "We know children like sausages and they're a great lunchtime choice. Quality sausages, particularly those that have a reduced fat and sodium content can form part of a healthy balanced diet and fit perfectly within the budgetary and nutritional guidelines for school meals. We hope to see more caterers making use of their innovation sausage recipes and of course, children enjoying them!" Held in conjunction with British Sausage Week 2009, the competition drew in almost 100 entries from cooks across the country.