PASSIONATE about food? Well it's time to put Worcestershire on the culinary map.

Your Worcester News has joined with Lea & Perrins Worcestershire Sauce to launch the search for the Official Dish of Worcestershire.

Not since the Manchester Pudding in 1856 has there been a new British regional dish created.

Now Lea & Perrins and your Worcester News is giving you the chance to put our county dish among the UK's renowned regional specialities including the Cornish pasty, the Yorkshire Pudding, Lancashire Hotpot and the Cumberland sausage.

The public will vote for their 10 favourite dishes. The finalists will then be judged by a panel of food journalists and local celebrities, including Kevin Ward, editor of your Worcester News, at a live cook-off in the Lea & Perrins factory, in the city's Midland Road.

Lea & Perrins has been making the nation's favourite Worcestershire Sauce for more than 170 years.

And the winning recipe will feature in a national Lea & Perrins advertisement, win £1,000 and see their recipe become the Lea & Perrins Official Dish of Worcestershire!' Lynsey Hurst, brand manager at Lea & Perrins said: "Lea & Perrins Worcestershire Sauce is the best known food product to come out of Worcestershire and we want to celebrate that by making Worcestershire's culinary delights famous."

For more information on how to enter, log on to www.splishme.com Fact file l The recipe for Worcestershire Sauce was bought to the chemist shop ran by John Lea and William Perrins by Lord Sandy's on his return from Bengal.

For curiosity Mr Lea and Mr Perrins made up a couple of gallons for themselves but when they tasted it they found it unpalatable so they left it gathering dust in their cellar.

A few years later they stumbled across the jars and before throwing it out they tried it once more. To their surprise the sauce had now matured and was now a most palatable sauce.

l Mr Lea & Mr Perrins started to sell their Worcestershire Sauce commercially in 1837 l Even today, several ingredients used in the secret recipe are matured for 18 months at the Worcester factory before being blended to make Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce l Lea & Perrins Worcestershire Sauce is available in all major supermarkets, and comes in a 150ml bottle with an RRP of 99p or 290ml bottle for RRP of £1.79 l In 2008 consumers voted Lea & Perrins Worcestershire Sauce the "Ingredient You Couldn't Live Without" at the Good Housekeeping Food Awards.