TOP chef Gary Maclean has served up a host of cooking demonstrations and kitchen tips to children from care and education charity Kibble.

Youngsters from Kibble and pupils from St James’ Primary School in Paisley were treated to a range of cookery and hospitality advice from the MasterChef winner at at The Experience in Hillington Park.

The multi-award winning chef, who won MasterChef: The Professionals in 2016, visited the Kibble-run kitchen in a bid to show young people the importance of cooking healthy food and to encourage careers in hospitality.

The attendees from Kibble and St James’ Primary had the chance to learn from the best as Gary taught them how to make Scottish mackerel and mussels, a healthy Indian curry as well as fresh pasta, all to be served up to the Kibble staff and members of the public.

READ MORE: Masterchef star Gary Maclean chats about new BBC show Corner Shop Cook Off

Gary, who is also executive chef at City of Glasgow College, said: “Working with Kibble is brilliant, it’s always really inspiring getting to meet the kids and the staff - I take my hat off to them all.

“These demonstrations are to show the kids how easy it is to cook healthy, fresh meals for themselves, to help build skills, but also to have fun together.

"Learning to cook can equip young people with fantastic transferable skills such as timings, patience and dexterity, not to mention setting them up for a brilliant range of hospitality and chefing careers."

Having visited the Kibble Safe Centre twice last year for similar demonstrations, Gary has become well acquainted with the work Kibble does to improve the life of the young people and individuals that come into their care.

David Jamieson, general manager at The Experience, said: “Gary has such a way with the young people, his energy and skill really inspire them.

"He’s got them all engaging in the lessons, asking questions and tasting things they would never have tried before.

"It’s important to us at The Experience and at Kibble to make sure these young people are getting a full range of skills demonstrations to show them all the opportunities out there, as well as people who support them and really care."

The Experience is a social enterprise run by specialist care provider Kibble, offering young people the chance to gain work experience as part of their education.

Other facilities at the five-star visitor centre include go-karting, laser tag, Hexagol, an interactive football game and soft play, as well as corporate meeting rooms for team-building and conferences.