A thank you from a loveFOOD competition winner

In the past people have accused us of keeping all our great competition prizes to ourselves... well we don't! As this heartwarming tale proves.

Before Christmas we ran a competition to win £500 worth of le Creuset kitchenware and a years supply of stock from our friends at Knorr. To enter, we asked which one of our tasty recipes you would cook in the pans if you won.

One entry stood out as the clear winner. User stevewestcliff wanted the prize not for himself, but for a young family who he'd befriended over the years. This selfless act of friendship, we felt, was the true meaning of Christmas, and so we chose Steve as the winner. This was his reply when I contacted him.

“Oh my word that's probably the best Christmas present I will be able to give. I am just shaking, I can't believe it. He and Louise will be just shocked”

With Christmas only five days away, Jen at GolinHarris who looks after Knorr's PR moved heaven and earth to get the prize to him before Christmas by courier. Finally I asked Steve to send us a picture of him and Shaun’s family when the prize arrived, and true to his word he did. As Tiny Tim says at the end of A Christmas Carol, 'God bless us, every one!'. 

Steve’s entry in full

"Dear loveFOOD and Knorr, I would make http://www.lovefood.com/guide/recipes/11803/jo-pratts-chicken-casserole-with-dumpling because over the last few years I have been watching my friends Shaun and Louise bringing up their new family, their lovely toddlers Chantelle and Lillyann are beautiful.

"Well Shaun has been redundant for a number of years despite attempting running his own computer business, attending courses galore from ICT to plastering, he has not given up on trying to secure a future to provide for his family.

"Shaun is in his mid twenties and is trying so hard to learn new skills and also provide the best he can for his family whilst on benefits. Over the last two years Shaun has developed his cooking skills, including baking his own bread and rolls, making cakes and trying different recipes by different chefs and cooks, which he finds on the Internet.

"Well the family is stretched financially and yet last year, despite this hardship, they kindly invited me to share Christmas and New Year with them, I was overwhelmed by their generosity and friendship and readily accepted. I watched Shaun proudly prepare his food and place the meat into old and cheap pound shop like pans and ovenware. The food was carefully prepared and he had managed to almost perfect the use of the cheap ovenware by use of tin foil, stock and constant and careful inspection of the food in the oven. It was hard work and he was sweating and worn out, every pot and pan was poorly made and gave him no help whatsoever to perfect his Christmas and New Year dishes.

"Well despite this he succeeded and we thoroughly enjoyed his food and the lovely moments with their first child Lillyann. All went well until New Years day and the cold winter was biting, Shaun decided to make a chicken casserole in one of the cheap metal ovenware items, he had no proper casserole dish, so he tried to create one by covering the bottom item with another piece of ovenware, which he placed upside down on top of the other.

"All was going really well until about half way through the cooking when we heard a loud pop from the oven. Shaun and Louise both rushed to the oven and, upon opening, found the contents of the dish splattered all over the bottom. On closer inspection a large hole was found in the bottom of one of the metal ovenware items. It had disintegrated and Louise stood there and just cried.

"I was heartbroken for them as I know how much preparation had gone into the dish and the whole day. Shaun was almost in tears but his pride shone through and he cleared up the mess, he tried salvaging some chicken but it was stuck to the oven walls. I really felt for them. Well we did eat as I treated them to a take away and we laughed about it after, but the reality was they had no real pans or ovenware to speak of to cook for the family for the rest of the year.

"Well a year on and I am medically retired, Shaun and Louise have had their second child Chantelle and yet they found the time to look out for me after I collapsed from a brain cyst problem.

"This year I have been invited again for the festive period. I had, during the year, loaned them some of my ovenware, but I know how proud Shaun is and how he would love to buy or have his own but they have no spare money to do so.

"So this year would be the most amazing thing if I could win this for them and present it to them. Shaun is starting out on his first college cookery NVQ course soon and would love the year supply of knorr stock pots to experiment and enhance his food, and would be amazed with that, as he can only afford basic stock.

"Shaun would be just stunned to win the cookware, he would love to cook the casserole chicken with dumplings recipe as it would mean so much to him that he had achieved it after last year’s disaster, it is an ideal dish for his little ones and would be wonderfully satisfying on a cold New Years day 2013. I hope my dream comes true to help such a lovely couple."