AN ACCRINGTON airman is celebrating after becoming an award winning chef.

Adam Sanderson, who is currently serving in the Royal Air Force, has been recognised with a number of RAF catering awards.

As well as being named the top RAF student chef of the year, the 25-year-old scooped two other awards for his hard work and skill.

Adam, a Senior Aircraftman, is a chef based at RAF Boulmer in Northumberland.

At a ceremony at Worthy Down Barracks in Hampshire, he picked up the Student Logistics Chef of the Year Award for his work ethic and high level of cooking skills, which he displayed during his training at Catering Training Squadron at RAF Halton in Aylesbury.

During the ceremony the former Mount Carmel High pupil was surprised to find out that he had also won the award for RAF Catering Student of the Year, which is given to the overall top student from both the Chef and Caterer disciplines.

The awards were held in conjunction with the RAF Culinary Competition for which he also won Bronze in the Junior Fish category, topping off an amazingly successful day Adam, who grew up in Accrington where mum Beverly and stepdad Robin still live, said he was thrilled to gain so much recognition for his cooking.

He said: “I am delighted to win the awards, especially Catering Student of the Year which was a complete surprise.

“It's nice to know that all the hard work put in during training has paid off.”

Adam joined the RAF in March last year and graduated from CTS at RAF Halton in October. He has since worked in both the Junior Ranks and Officers’ Mess at RAF Boulmer.