STUDENTS who hope to be the next generation of master chefs will have the perfect platform to kick start their culinary careers next month.

Celebrity chef Ivor Peters will head up a team of volunteers from the catering course at Bishop Auckland College when they run a pop-up Indian restaurant at the town’s annual food festival.

Mr Peters, a food writer and TV cook also known as The Urban Rajah, took part in Bishop Auckland Food Festival in 2013 and when he was invited to run a pop-up restaurant this year was keen to get talented trainee chefs from the area involved.

He said: “A few things mark Bishop Auckland Food Festival out as very different to others, there is a real food honesty- a passion for food without snobbery.

“There is also access to great produce regionally.”

On Wednesday he spent the afternoon with students in the college’s new industry-standard training kitchens practising the dishes they will cook and serve in the 100-cover restaurant in the grounds of Auckland Castle on Saturday, April 18 and Sunday, April 19.

Over the weekend they will serve around 800 people a selection of dishes from Mr Peters’ cook book Urban Rajah’s Curry Memoirs as part of the Great Indian Food Feast, which will include demonstrations by Mr Peters in the restaurant tent.

He said: “The students are going to be the brigade, they are fantastic, really quick learners and really passionate about cooking.

“They clearly have some great course tutors here and you can see they have a real appetite for food adventure.”

College principal Natalie Davison said: “There has never been a more exciting time for the area and the food festival has, for years, been an important event on the calendar for drawing people into the town.

“The college is keen to get involved and for our students to get such incredible work experience with the excitement of working with a celebrity chef is an incredible opportunity.”

Lecturer Sharron Hogarth added: “We don’t really do a big event and though we do some ethnic cookery on the course, this is a great opportunity.”

Bradley Rodgers, 19, of Barnard Castle, said: “The college restaurant is mainly English and French so to work on ethnic foods is good, it is going to be a test but with Ivor keeping us right it will be great.”

William Cutler, 16, of Bishop Middleham, and Emily Davies, 16, of Cockfield, both hope the experience will boost their CVs and are excited to get to work on such a big project so soon into their journey to a career in food.