A CELEBRITY chef has joined forces with a council in cooking up ideas to save food being wasted.

Award winning Jean-Christophe Novelli has created a recipe for a three-course meal, in partnership with North Herts District Council’s (NHDC) love your leftovers campaign.

The TV chef’s recipes, which are designed to use up Christmas dinner leftovers, include a pastry topped vegetable and turkey broth for starter, turkey and vegetable cottage pie for a main course, and stewed fruit crumble made with leftover Christmas pudding.

As part of the campaign, NHDC is also launching its own recipe competition.

Residents are asked to submit their own ideas for recipes made from leftover festive food, with the best winning a day cookery course at the Novelli Academy Cookery School.

Jean Christophe said: “The recipes I have created are made from local ingredients that are commonly left over from Christmas and Boxing Day festivities.

“They are incredibly tasty and easy enough so that you don’t need to be a top chef to be able to follow them. I hope that everyone will take the opportunity to try them over the holidays.

“I hope my recipes will inspire people to get creative in the kitchen and come up with their own ideas to enter into the competition. I am excited to see what North Herts’ budding amateur chefs can come up with.”

NHDC first approached Jean-Christophe in October to ask for his help in the campaign.

His recipe cards will be available from NHDC’s waste team at events taking place throughout the Christmas period.

Cllr Peter Burt, portfolio holder for waste, recycling and environment, said: “We are delighted that Jean-Christophe has created these fantastic recipes to help our campaign to reduce food waste.

“Christmas can be an expensive time for families so we hope that these recipes will encourage people to use up all their festive food before having to stock up again.”

The cards will be available at the Baldock Christmas Fayre in the High Street on December 3, Hitchin’s Market Place on December 16, and at the Christmas Creative Kitchen in Leys Square on December 17. The recipes can also be downloaded from the NHDC website.