How inventive is your cooking? Would you like to showcase your skills in the company of a host of celebrity chefs? Are you good enough to take home the SuperCook trophy?

Well, if you can cut the mustard you could take advantage of a unique opportunity to cook like you have never cooked before as part of the Essex Spectacular and Echo SuperCook competition in association with Waitrose, and with prizes awarded by no less than legendary TV chef Antonio Carluccio.

The SuperCook competition is part of the county’s hot new show, the Essex Spectacular, at Barleylands Showground near Billericay on August 6 and 7.

The event is effectively five shows in one but just one ticket will give visitors access to all. This smorgasbord of entertainment includes the first ever Essex International Hot Air Balloon Festival, the Motor Show with stunning cars to buy or just covet, the Lifestyle and Home zone, the fabulous Partyman Kid Zone (with the Spurs Football Roadshow) and of course the fabulous Food Village with celebrity chefs and foodie experiences in abundance.

The SuperCook Competition will provide a springboard for one keen cook to show off their skills in an environment where culinary inventiveness will be the key. The challenge will be to create a dish which can be prepped and cooked in about 30 minutes and will wow our judging panel.

All entries will be judged based on creativity, use of ingredients, flavours and practicality from which the very best will be shortlisted. Two finalists will be chosen to take to the stage each day of the show on the professional RangeMaster Theatre kitchen in the Taste Village at the Essex Spectacular to show the public and the judges just what they are capable of.

All ingredients for the finalists to cook on the day will be supplied courtesy of Waitrose Food Stores and chef Matthew Locker will work alongside finalists on stage to provide professional input, but not to influence the recipe.

The SuperCook winner, as adjudged by the panel on the weekend, will be awarded the SuperCook 2011 trophy, a place on a course at the Sandbank Restaurant Cookery School, an Antonio Carluccio cookery book signed in person by the maestro of cuisine himself and, of course, the winner and their winning recipe will be featured in the Echo.

All entrants will receive a voucher entitling them to two tickets for the price of one, courtesy of the Echo.

The judging panel includes Paul Gayler,Chef de Cuisine at The Lanesborough on Hyde Park Corner, Matthew Locker, Chef Patron at Michelin listed Sandbank Restaurant, Leigh and Michele Newman, Echo Newspapers.

HOW TO ENTER

Choose your ingredients from the list below to create a stunning dish for two in 30 minutes.

Once your dish is perfected, send us a picture along with the ingredients you used and details of how you put it all together.

Meat:
Two duck or chicken breasts
Fillet steak
200g sliced Parma ham

Fish:
Two salmon or seabass fillets
500g smoked haddock or monkfish

Vegetables and sundries:
500g potatoes (any variety)
500g carrots
One head of celery
One punnet of cherry tomatoes
One bag of baby spinach
One bunch of asparagus
500g broccoli
300g wild mushrooms
One butternut squash
Two red peppers
Two Granny Smith apples
Two oranges
Dill, basil, mint, chives
Basmati rice, risotto rice
Brandy, madiera, red or white wine

Entrants may also use store cupboard ingredients such as oil, vinegar, onions, mustard, butter, milk, cream (including creme fraiche, fromage frais etc), eggs, flour, stock, seasonings and spices.

Send your photo and recipe package to Echo SuperCook competition, Newspaper House, Chester Hall Lane, Basildon, Essex. SS14 3BL, or email to promos@nqe.com.

Remember to include your name, address and a daytime contact number.

Competition closing date is July 21, 2011.

Usual Newsquest Essex terms and conditions apply, copies available on request.

Entrants must be available on both days of the show to attend the final.

Finalists will be notified no later than August 3, 2011.