The 12-year-old will be up against five other students from across the North West at the Royal Academy of Culinary Arts cook-off this Saturday.

Nathan, from Bignall End, has spent the last two weeks perfecting his recipe and hopes to tickle the judges’ tastebuds with his version of chicken forestiere.

His school, Sir Thomas Boughey High, in Halmerend, has also drafted in Keele University’s executive chef Peter Walters as a mentor to help him prepare for the big day. 

The Year 7 pupil said: “It’s quite nerve-racking. My aunt is a cook at a nursery, so she’ll be counting on me to win.

“My recipe includes chicken with a red wine sauce. For the veg, I’m doing a section of a courgette and asparagus heads, which I’m making into a tower. I’m also cooking button mushrooms, green beans and a carrot mash.”

Nathan first became interested in cooking through encouragement athome.

“My mum has always said I’d need to learn things to survive, just in case they weren’t in to cook for me.

“I started off making smoothies. But it’s only in the last year that I’ve been making my own dishes. I like experimenting.”

Nathan was one of 30 pupils from Sir Thomas Boughey to be entered for the challenge. He has already beaten students up to two years older than him.

The contest has also proved a test of young people’s creative writing skills.

For the first round, pupils had to create a poem about their favourite dish and the best entries were selected to go through to the practical heat.

Nathan’s poem cleverly combined verse with instructions on how to make chicken chorizo pasta, his signature dish at home.

He recreated his recipe for the semi-final, which was hosted by South Cheshire College.

Now the aspiring chef is travelling to Formby Food Festival for the grand final. It will involve cooking in a mobile kitchen in front of the festival audience.

Noosh Daragheh, head of catering at Sir Thomas Boughey, will be joining hisfamily to cheer him on.

She said: “I’m very proud of him. Nathan uses a lot of flavours in his dishes and is also good at multi-tasking. He is using skills that older students don’t even know.

“This is the first time we’ve entered students for this particular competition. But we have done the Future Chef competition for the last seven or eight years. It’s a great way to encourage students and develop their talents.”

As for Nathan, he is considering a career as a chef.

He said: “I will definitely be cooking more after this. But I might not do the chicken chorizo for a while because my parents are a bit tired of it.

“I’ve been practising at home.”