A CHEF who has cooked for The Queen and whose uncle is catering royalty has joined the team at one of the North-East’s top hotels.

Lee Williams, former head chef at Northumberland’s Horton Grange Hotel, has been appointed senior sous chef at four-star Lumley Castle Hotel, Chester-le-Street.

His father, Alfie, was a chef aboard the Royal Navy’s HMS Glasgow during the Falklands War, and his uncle, John Williams, is executive chef at The Ritz, London, and was voted 2017 AA Chef of the Year.

Lee Williams said: “I have some way to go before I’m at the level he has reached, but his footsteps are definitely worth following in.

“His culinary-style is very much old-school French cuisine and those skills are still the bedrock for any chef.”