Celebrities back clubs as thousands await cookathon results.

17 April 2009

Tens of thousands of people who took part in Let’s Get Cooking’s national ‘cookathon’ last month are poised for the results of this spectacular, mass event, which saw 24,000 people across the country cooking together.

The competition attracted international celebrity support from top names such as Olympic sailing champion Ben Ainslie and Commonwealth champion boxer Amir Khan. A list of celebrity chefs including Antony Worrall Thompson, Prue Leith, Rob Rees, John Benson-Smith and Galton Blackiston also supported the cookathon.

Triple Olympic gold and silver medallist in sailing, Ben Ainslie, said: "Being a sportsman means that I have to keep in great shape to stay at the top of my game. Eating healthily and being aware of the right foods to eat is a great way of maintaining a healthy lifestyle and has certainly contributed to my career success so far. Let’s Get Cooking is a great way to introduce healthy eating amongst children, their families and the community and to help them achieve a healthy way of life. I think the cookathon is a great way to teach people how to move towards eating healthier meals and wish the clubs every success in the cookathon."

It was Tuesday 17 March when thousands of people rolled up their sleeves and cooked together. Participant numbers went way beyond club members to include whole schools, parents and other family members, local businesses, restaurants, residential homes for the elderly, church groups and many more. One club even reached people in its partner school in Sri Lanka, asking their pupils to help get Britain cooking again. Another club persuaded the House of Lords to put the cookathon dish on its menu for the day!

With a top prize of £1,000 and regional prizes of £250, nine Let’s Get Cooking clubs are set to enjoy a cash boost as cookathon winners for cooking a healthy dish and involving the most people, relative to the number of pupils on their school roll.

Celebrity chef and food writer Prue Leith said: "Congratulations to every club and every person who took part. It has been an overwhelming success and enormous fun. At the centre of all this is of course the huge importance of helping people learn new cooking skills using healthy foods, some of which they may not have tried before.

"The impact of this competition and of Let’s Get Cooking itself means more and more people are discovering the joy of cooking healthy meals from scratch."

Competition judging is underway and results are to be announced in June.