TRAINEE chef at Percy's Restaurant at Coombeshead Andrew Gerry has won a Westcountry cooking competition — despite almost slicing his finger off 20 minutes into the contest.

Andrew, 17, was taking part in the Young Chef of the Westcountry competition at the Taste of the West show in Exeter's Westpoint last Thursday.

The young chef sliced his finger while he was chopping vegetables, but after emergency treatment by a trained first aider he battled on with a bandaged finger and scooped the £250 first prize.

Andrew impressed the judges with his bacon-wrapped chicken filled with goat's cheese on a bed of garlic mash, purple sprouting broccoli and stir-fried swede, carrot and leek with a white wine and tarragon cream sauce.

All the ingredients used were either grown at Percy's Estate at Coombeshead or provided from local farmers and growers committed to organic/free range production.

Andrew, who has been working at the restaurant for 12 weeks under the guidance of chef Christina Bricknell-Webb, said the result was a complete surprise, especially as he had been handicapped 20 minutes into the competition.

Joint proprietor of Percy's, Tony Bricknell-Webb, said the win was terrific for Andrew and his career.

'It is lovely to get a pat on the back and it is a result for the business as well because for us it shows our commitment to training,' he said.

The Bricknell-Webbs have trained many young chefs both in their restaurant at Coombeshead and their previous business in London but are now considering setting up a training school.

'We are nicely located for Devon and Cornwall with colleges at Exeter and Camborne and we are currently looking into getting funding to run a training centre here,' he said.