A little chef who has dreams of one day serving up delicious food herself stole the hearts of celebrity chefs and the crowds at Bishop Auckland Food Festival this weekend.
Those who took a trip to Bishop Auckland Food Festival this weekend may have spotted a super fan who stole the hearts of celebrity chefs demonstrating their culinary skills on stage.
That aspiring cook was six-year-old Imogen Bowley from Leeds, who travelled up to the region this weekend for the festival with dad Danny.
Poised on the front row of the audience at the cookery theatre, Imogen was invited on stage by 2023 Bake Off finalist Dan Hunter - and even got a signed cookbook for all her help.
She was later given the chance to have her photograph taken with all the chefs from the first day of the festival, which included BOSH! duo Henry Firth and Ian Theasby.
Decked out in her very own Chef Imogen outfit, she won the hearts of the audience who gave her a hearty round of applause.
Dad Danny, 41, explained how Imogen was non-verbal until the age of four until baking prompted her first ever word - 'cake'.
Danny said: "During lockdown, we spent a lot of time in the kitchen and she has always enjoyed playing with toy food anyway.
"We started getting fresh food deliveries and turned it into a game where we asked her to name all the ingredients."
Since then, Imogen and her dad have built up a following on social media as well as creating her own website food hub named Bake For Books.
Over the years, they have raised thousands of pounds to buy food books to young children, with the aim of educating them about food and the art of cooking.
Danny added: "It's amazing to see her shine on stage. She is a lot more confident with adults and she just comes to life when she's being a chef.
"It makes us so proud, and she does a lot of work to help get other kids in the kitchen."
Making the journey up to Bishop Auckland for the weekend, both Danny and Imogen were hugely impressed with the festival.
Danny said: "We had seen on social media that the chefs were coming here for the festival as we follow and keep up with them all.
"Every week we have a chef-venture and this is this week's outing. It has been brilliant, the stalls are fantastic.
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"One of the stallholders even recognised Imogen - which was lovely!"
Bishop Auckland's food festival took place on April 20 and 21 - and thousands of visitors gathered across the Market Place to munch delicious food from some 150 stalls.
On the menu was everything from loaded fries to cocktails and fudge.
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