• Click 'play' to see a video of Mr Oberhoffer's visit and how the children got on.

Chef Robert Oberhoffer, of The Dove restaurant in Alburgh, demonstrated how to make a cottage pie for the Let's Get Cooking cookathon.

Mince was being browned up and down the country as 20,000 children took up the challenge and the chance to win a £1,000 cash prize.

Headteacher Roger Walsh said: "Most importantly, it is about getting kids involved with cooking. Evening meals in some houses are not the same as they used to be.

"We believe in the old-fashioned concept of a meal around the table together and some sort of discussion."

Every pupil at the school watched the cookery demonstrations and some helped prepare the dish.

They also had the chance to ask Mr Oberhoffer questions about his work and some of the challenges he had faced as a chef.

"My children are at the school and I thought this was a good chance to get involved with cooking here," he said.

"Kids are like Plasticine. If you show them a straightforward, easy way to do things that they enjoy, they will get involved."

The pupils were also encouraged to go home and cook a cottage pie with their families, take a photo of their dish and bring it back into school.

Let's Get Cooking is a national network of healthy cooking clubs for children, parents and the wider community, which has proved extremely successful in Harleston.

"The club has been really popular – everybody wants to do it," said Mr Walsh.

"The cottage pie we made is just one of about 120 recipes that are in the Let's Get Cooking cookbook, which the children will gradually work their way through."

The scheme is backed by £20m from the Big Lottery Fund, with the aim of setting up 5,000 clubs by 2010.