THE best of Colchester’s produce will be on show in a new ITV programme.

Celebrity teams have gone head to head in a contest in which they have to cook a three-course meal using ingredients sourced within a ten-mile radius.

Cameramen were in town, filming for Ten Mile Menu.

Chef Phil Vickery joined forces with Loose Women host Andrea McLean to form the green team and chef Paul Rankin and comedian Bobby Davro made up the blue team.

They went to West Mersea to get fresh fish and shellfish – including the island’s famous oysters – for the starters.

Phil Vickery’s team went to Tiptree to buy loganberry, mulberry and damson varieties of the village’s renowned jams, and then to Blackwell’s Farm Shop, in Coggeshall, for beef.

Meanwhile, Paul Rankin bought beef chops from a butcher in Marks Tey.

The teams were then filmed during a cook-off at the catering and hospitality kitchens at Colchester Institute last night, which was judged by members of Colchester Gladiators American Football Team.

Associate producer Kirsty Dougall said it was the last in a series of 15 shows and had been one of the best locations they had visited.

She added: “We had an amazing day filming here. It’s been absolutely fantastic and far better than I would have expected.

“People don’t know about all the great produce there is in Essex – it’s got loads and loads of good stuff.

“We’re so pleased we came here.”

Jon Pratt, head of Colchester Institute’s centre for hospitality and food studies, said: “It’s great publicity for the centre and a brilliant opportunity for some of the students to meet some well-known chefs.

“The students cooked lunch for them and they said it was some of the best food they’d eaten during the filming.

“It shows this area has some wonderful ingredients.”

Ten Mile Menu is due to be shown on ITV1 in March.