South West

Held in Lyons, France, the competition is named after Paul Bocuse - the Godfather of French cooking.

The Bocuse d'Or is where the best chefs in the world battle it out, live, in front of an audience of thousands.

Torquay's Elephant restaurant.

They’re all trying to impress the jury of international gastronomy stars with their culinary works of art.

Representing Britain is head chef at Michelin star restaurant - The Elephant in Torquay – Simon Hulstone.

Simon is already an award winning chef but the Bocuse D’or is his toughest challenge yet.

"I’ve done all the ones in Britain - let's take on the world now and see what we can do."

The art of cooking

Simon's aim is to come in the top six.

To help him get there he’s taking assistant chef Adam Smith, and his dad Roger.

Roger’s also a chef and will be going along as his coach, to make sure everything runs smoothly.

Simon’s so serious about the competition that he's shut up his restaurant for two weeks to dedicate all his time to preparing.

The chefs' contest hots up.

His final test before he goes is a tasting by some of the UK's top chefs, including Britain’s judge at the Bocuse D’or, Brian Turner.

Simon's two dishes are traditionally British – roast beef, and fish and chips – but you definitely wouldn't recognise them!

As Simon says, this competition is more of an art show.

"The way it looks is so important - the chefs will see it before they taste it so it has to have a wow factor on first sight."

The chefs lap it up - and Brian thinks they're in with a good chance.

"I think we’ll be very proud of what they turn out but it’s a bit like Cup Final day – whoever pulls out all the stops on the day wins."

Culinary capital of the world

A beautiful city in East Central France, Lyon is one of the cookery capitals of the world.

But there's no time for sight-seeing as Simon, Roger and Adam head straight to the competition venue.

The culinary judging panel.

With 24 chefs taking part, the competition spans two days.

Simon is cooking on the first day. That means he's got to get to grips with his kitchen without delay.

The kitchens are small - facing out to a large stadium which will soon be packed with cheering spectators.

Simon's got a touch of nerves "It's all very daunting and suddenly very real."

Five star culinary competition

The next day as spectators spill into the stadium, Simon and Adam can only hope all their hard work will pay off.

Everything goes well and they even get a special visit from Paul Bocuse himself.

He seems impressed.

Roger says, "I heard him say to the French TV, 'The Brits are good, we've got to keep an eye on them' - let's hope he's right!"

Five and a half hours of feverish cooking later and it’s the moment of truth.

Simon's dishes are carried out of the kitchen on silver trays and presented to the judges.

Simon faces his biggest challenge.

The noise from the audience is deafening, but the Brits are holding their breath as Simon comes out front to plate up.

Each of the 24 judges from around the world, as well as Bocuse, taste his food - but they're not giving much away.

Simon thinks it went well but knows "there was some amazing food. I have to finish in the top to stand any chance tomorrow".

Day two of the competition and another 12 chefs give it their best.

All Simon can do is sit back and watch but he's starting to worry about his chances.

"This is worse than cooking - just looking at the other food - it's amazing. I'd be proud if I'm in the top ten now."

The grand jury

After two days of cooking, all the food has been presented and the judges are ready with their results.

The stadium is bursting at the seams as all the supporters cram in to see who'll win the Bocuse title.

The chefs enter the arena with their country flags held high.

The crowd is hushed as the top awards are announced.

Food fans fly the flag for the UK.

Bronze goes to France, Silver to Sweden, and Gold to Norway.

But where is Britain?

After an agonising wait for the other results he finds out they came 10th - just inside of his new target.

"We had quite a few of the big boys behind us so I'm very happy with that."

Brian Turner’s so thrilled that he sees this as just the beginning: "We've just got to persuade him to come back in two years time then we can win it."

Although he didn’t come quite as high as he’d hoped, Simon managed to beat off some of the world’s very best and brought a little taste of the West Country to the world stage.