BEACON Hill Primary cook Josefine Austin has won through to the final of a high-profile competition to see who is Britain’s top school chef.

Pupils were thrilled when Josefine was judged South East champion in the regional heats of LACA School Chef of the Year event and hope she will come top of the class with her Swedish meatballs and pineapple tart in the final on March 7.

She will step up to the plate against 11 other finals contestants working against the clock and under the scrutiny of the panel of judges, as they each prepare, cook and present four portions of the main course and a dessert they served in the regional contest. They will have 90 minutes and a maximum spend of £1.30 is allowed.

Josefine will be serving her beef meatballs with mashed potatoes, carrot and courgette ribbons with a creamy sauce, and her pineapple tart comes with vanilla crème, sweet pineapple slices and a coconut crumble.

Born in Sweden in 1987, she knew she wanted to be a chef when she was six years old. She went to catering college in Sweden and following her graduation in 2006, she came to England and met James, her husband of 12 years.

After running her own cake decorating business, she joined Surrey Commercial Services in 2017 as a mobile caterer covering a number of schools in Surrey.

Josefine liked her stint at Beacon Hill Primary School so much, she successfully applied to be catering supervisor and she has been preparing 150 meals a day for fou to 11 year olds there since January 2018.

“The school is so supportive,” Josefine said. “When I showed them my cup for being regional champion, they were all so excited. It was really nice. That’s why I did it, I wanted to make them proud.

“School meals really have evolved. I cook a lot from scratch and there’s a lot of love in the food we serve up."