Heidi Belshaw and James Piprell have reached the national final of a seafood cookery competition and hope to be the second College of Further Education team to win. (Picture by Adrian Miller, 0772062)

TWO talented young chefs have made it to the finals of the UK Seafood Championship in Grimsby.

Heidi Belshaw, 18, and James Piprell, 17, will represent the island against seven other top UK college teams, whittled down from 126 original entries.

They defeated strong competition in the semi-finals in Norwich with their sustainable and locally-sourced seafood menu which was praised by the judges as innovative.

‘Going over for the semi-finals was really nerve-racking,’ said Heidi.

‘But when we entered the judges’ room we saw ours compared to the others and thought we had a good chance to go through.’

James was more confident. ‘Ours was better,’ he said.

They were relieved when they saw their lecturer, Paul Wilson, jumping up and down and shouted as they knew this meant they were through.

‘He warned us before that if we didn’t win we’d be swimming back,’ said Heidi.