THERE was even more than Christmas to celebrate at Harewood House residential home in Tavistock this season —they had just won the best local authority kitchen award.

Manager Maggie Hogarth said staff and residents were delighted.

'The kitchens in all the homes have an excellent standard — but this award means we have exceeded that,' she said.

'It is asessed on the standard in food hygiene, stock control and nutritional content of the menu and the presentation of attractive food.'

Harewood provides fresh cooked meals to the local community, the day centre, residents and the re-hab unit.

'We pride ourselves on our cartering here. We had traditional fare over Christmas — but on December 27 we had an Italian evening.'

Maggie, who says cooking is a hobby of hers, prepared the meal with her assistant manager Joyce Baker. Together they conjured up grapefruit and port for starters, tagliatelli as main course, and to finish — Bailey's ice-cream.

'Some of the residents were a bit frail to go out to restaurants — so we brought the restaurant to them. We dressed up as Italian waiters and put on a bit of Pavarotti!'