WHEN celebrity chef Andrew Nutter won his first-ever cookery competition at the tender age of 13 he knew he had the ingredients to create his very own recipe for success.

But little did he know that the competition, 15 years ago, would be the turning point that would launch him as one of East Lancashire's biggest success stories.

Today Andrew owns his own restaurant in the hills above Edenfield, as well as being a heart-throb TV star preparing to hit the worldwide web.

But the down-to-earth Lancashire lad takes it all in his stride.

He grew up surrounded by food as his mum Jean was a home economics teacher and he helped out in dad Rodney's butcher's shop.

His love of entering food and recipe competitions resulted in his cooking style being spotted by the Savoy head chef Anton Edelman and Andrew was offered a job there as soon as he left school.

A move to France followed and he spent two years working in several Michelin starred restaurants.

Then he returned to London to work at the famous Greenhouse Restaurant under the watchful eye of Gary Rhodes before his ambition took over once again.

At age 21, Nutter -- with the backing of his parents -- opened his first restaurant, which quickly became one of Lancashire's most popular.

Nutters has just celebrated its seventh anniversary with a week-long party -- and Andrew certainly knows how to party.

Every night he served up a seven-course delight to a packed house -- each course marking one year of his restaurant's success. And the whole celebration was captured on film by the BBC's Food and Drink programme, which first featured Andrew 15 years ago when he won one of its junior chef competitions.

Arriving guests were treated to the sight of Andrew cooking up scallop canapes al fresco on his mobile kitchen unit outside the restaurant as a brass band played a fanfare from the building's roof.

After a champagne reception, guests were treated to sushi and black pudding wontons, a delightful oceanic bisque, confit of duck wontons, salmon cooked to perfection, cornfed chicken, and a Pandora's box of desserts with Picasso's coulis. Then Andrew wowed the diners with his second passion -- fireworks.

He lit up the sky over the moors with a fantastic display -- designed and lit himself -- fittingly to the tune of Robbie Williams' Let Me Entertain You.

But despite his confidence and obvious talent, there is no-one more surprised by his success than Andrew himself.

He said: "When I started winning cookery competitions as a teenager I realised that I was winning prizes for something I enjoyed and that is why I stuck with it.

"I never dreamed that just 15 years later so much would have happened to me and I would be here celebrating the seventh anniversary of my restaurant -- it is unbelievable."

Actress Nerys Hughes, who starred in The Liver Birds, presented Andrew with the Junior Cook of the Year award 15 years ago and she came back to join him for the celebrations at the restaurant (pictured).

But Andrew very nearly didn't make it through the whole week of fun after his firework display went disastrously wrong on one of the first nights.

He said: "I very nearly blew myself up as one of the backdrops to the fireworks set on fire and we had to throw water on it. But fireworks are my second passion so I'll certainly be carrying on with my displays."

And Andrew has got plenty of food projects in the pipeline to keep him in the spotlight over the next few years.

He said: "I am involved with the launch of an internet concept where people will be able to buy the raw ingredients for Nutter's meals, which will then be delivered to their homes along with the recipes so they can cook food with the Nutter twist in their own homes.

"I am also working on an Italian food video and a promotion to show that noodles aren't necessarily a Chinese food by bringing them into traditional English dishes."