Shopping basket challenge

Where: Ye Old Sun Inn, Colton, Tadcaster, Yorkshire

How it works: Ye Old Sun Inn at Colton hosts monthly cookery demonstrations throughout the year, but the annual highlight is the shopping basket challenge, which takes place in July. Owners Ashley and Kelly McCarthy got the idea from the TV series Ready, Steady, Cook and it involves the pub's chefs battling it out in front of an audience of around 70 guests, who each pay £5.

This year, the contest was between chef/proprietor Ashley and his second chef, Christopher Elliman, who cooked in a makeshift kitchen in the courtyard at the side of the pub.

Chris won the toss of the coin and opted for Bag A, which was brought in by pub regular Ann Frankish. The contents of the bag came to the value of £10 and contained savoury items, including smoked haddock, prawns, courgettes, potatoes, leeks, cider, basmati rice, cottage cheese, tinned tomatoes, carrots, cheese and pork steak.

In Bag B, which was brought in by customer Wendy McCarthy, Ashley had the sweet options, again to the value of £10. This bag contained mango, banana, cherries, pineapple, ginger, a bar of 70% cocoa-content chocolate, strawberries, gooseberries, pecan nuts and mascarpone cheese.

The chefs were allowed to use items from the "grocery table", which included butter, eggs, flour and herbs.

In the hour allocated for cooking, Chris managed to create eight dishes including haddock kedgeree, courgette au gratin and sweet-and-sour pork. Ashley created seven dishes, including chocolate fondant with vanilla mascarpone cream, banoffee tart and cherry clafoutis.

At the end of the hour, the guests were asked to test the cooked dishes. The result was a draw and it was hailed as a huge success, with £130 raised for the Down's Syndrome Association.