John Benson-Smith is one of Yorkshire's most high-profile master chefs, a founder and director of Hazlewood Castle Hotel, near Tadcaster and armed with fast talking passion for his subject.

Only last year he returned from his celebrity travels, working with Loyd Grosman, Manchester City Football Club and Walkers Sensation crisps to relaunch Hazlewood Castle's now highly-acclaimed restaurant 1086.

He has brought to it all the subtlety you would expect from the 1999 Northern Chef of the Year and former regular judge on BBC television's Masterchef programme

John has set out to relay his skills and enthusiasm for cooking on to the younger generation by teaming up with the North Yorkshire Business And Education Partnership.

He is a special inspiration to them because he overcame dyslexia after leaving school at 16 to work with the likes of legendary chef Louis Outhier at Restaurant L'Oasis in La Napoule in the South of France, at the Black Swan in Helmsley and Linton Springs, near Wetherby.

It's hardly surprising that John has been nominated as the Evening Press Business Personality of the Year and is also pitching to win the Best Business in Education Link category.

He has forged especially close links with the dyslexia centre at St Oswald's School, in Fulford, York, but also ensured that Hazlewood Castle was one of the venues for 40 talented students from five Selby area secondary schools who this summer embarked on two weeks of visits, workshops and challenges to enhance employability skills.

They were part of the Selby Enterprise Academy funded by a successful Pathfinder bid from Tadcaster Grammar School and project managed by NYBEP. It targets talented Year 10 students with an aptitude for enterprise.

John has also opened new kitchens at Pindar School in Scarborough, and welcomed pupils from Cawood School, near Tadcaster, to Hazlewood Castle for the day.

Updated: 12:37 Monday, August 02, 2004