25/5/21

A citywide ‘clash of the cooks’ competition has reached its conclusion with the winner scooping a £150 supermarket voucher.

 Daria Krasinska from Pengam Green earned the top honours for the meals she cooked as part of a healthy cooking challenge launched by the Council’s Money Advice team in March.

 Daria and her family were one of 50 households in the city who pitted saucepan against saucepan, whisk against whisk to whip up the finest, healthy dishes based on wholesome and nourishing recipes developed by tutors from the Council’s Adult Learning service.

Each household received a box of healthy ingredients and cooking utensils and were encouraged to work their magic to create a week's supply of delicious family meals by following online video tutorials or recipe cards made by Adult Learning.

The challenge was made possible thanks to Welsh Government funding through the Building a Healthier Wales approach received via Cardiff and Vale University Health Board, which seeks to transform health and well-being through a focus on prevention and early intervention. The challenge helped promote healthy cooking and eating habits amongst the residents who took part as every meal was carefully chosen for both its nutritious values as well as for cost effectiveness.

Seeing off tough competition from her fellow cooking challengers who all submitted photos of their culinary creations to the Money Advice team, Daria was chosen as the winner, based on the presentation and how tasty her meals looked.

Daria said: “During the pandemic, being at home with two busy children I struggled to find ways to occupy my family.  I searched online and discovered this great challenge which I instantly wanted to take part in. The recipes cards were easy to follow and I have also enjoyed watching the online tutorials.

"Cooking together with my family has been a great way of bonding and learning new skills. The food turned out to be delicious and easy to make - my children absolutely loved it.”

Cabinet Member for Housing and Communities, Cllr Lynda Thorne, said: “Congratulations to Daria and her family on their win and thank you to everyone who took part for their fantastic efforts. It was a tough competition and the panel of judges were very impressed with the photos of the delicious meals cooked by our challengers. After careful consideration though, Daria was named ‘Top Healthy Chef’ for the outstanding dishes she created.”