BROUGHTON-in-Furness pub The Blacksmiths Arms has won a national competition for the best lamb dish in an English pub.

The competition, organised by the English Beef and Lamb Executive (EBLEX), invited readers of Farmers Guardian magazine to nominate their favourite pub lamb dish, and entries flooded in from around the country.

Four winners were chosen and each receives a plaque to advertise their pub as a winner.

Blacksmiths' landlord Michael Lane is proud to serve meat from butchers who source their lamb directly from farmers.

He also buys direct from the farm himself.

"In fact, it was one of the farmers who supplies our lamb (Greenodd butcher and farmer Peter Hutchinson) who entered us in the competition. The Lamb Henry' dish is on the main menu and is a bit of a speciality of the pub."

Mr Lane added: "Our local community is passionate about using local produce, especially meat, and I need to make sure that what I sell appeals to my customers."

Challenge LEE Jeynes, the 37-year-old head chef at Crag Brow Hotel, Bowness, and boss of the Alchemy chef agency, is preparing for the biggest challenge of his career as he makes his debut as Welsh National Culinary Team captain at the Culinary Olympics in Germany next week.

It will be Lee's second Olympics, having previously won a silver medal when Wales competed as a region of Great Britain four years ago.

This time the team has national status and is going for gold.

"In our last competition in Chicago we were just a couple of points off a gold medal and we won a gold in the hot kitchen at the Culinary World Cup two years ago. We are now much more professional and organised and have developed our own fresh and clean-cut style.

"Wales is ranked 13th in the world, which is a brilliant achievement for the team considering the financial constraints and the limited time we spend together practising. Our target at the Olympics is a top 10 finish, which I believe is within our reach."