The Dutch Produce Association has launched a competition offering amateur and professional cooks, schools and colleges in England the chance to win up to £5,000 plus an all-expenses-paid trip to the Netherlands.

The Chicory Challenge aims to draw attention to chicory’s potential and inspire English cooks to create some great new chicory recipes.

A panel of judges will select three recipes from the entries submitted, picking their short list from the information provided by the competitors.

Then teams or individuals that submit the top three recipes will cook-off in the Netherlands on November 21 and 22.

Competitors will be flown to the Netherlands, put up in a top hotel and treated to dinner in one of Amsterdam’s leading restaurants.

The next day they will visit producers to see at first hand how the product is grown.

Then contestants will be off to the kitchen, to prepare their own chicory recipe for judging by a panel of English and Dutch cooks, food writers and VIPs.

All three individuals or teams in the final are guaranteed to return home with a cheque. In addition to the £5,000 top prize there is a second prize of £1,000 and a third prize of £500, which can be donated to any charity of the winner’s choice - or to a local school or catering college.

Entries must be submitted via the competition website www.chicorychallenge.co.uk by no later than midnight on October 12.

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