North Yorkshire's own pin-up chef James Martin is at the centre of a right Royal row after serving beef-on-the-bone to Prince Charles.

Steve Hull, spokesman for the Celtic Manor Resort, near Newport, where the Prince and Welsh Secretary Alun Michael attended a function yesterday, confirmed that Ready, Steady Cook star James served up the banned meat.

Mr Hull said: "He didn't actually cook the beef. I must confess it was cooked in our kitchen.

"But he was certainly there and was one of the two people serving it, along with our chef Trefor Jones."

James, a former student at the Yorkshire Coast College in Scarborough, went on to train under celebrity chef Antony Worral-Thompson before becoming a TV regular himself.

He first had a chance to show off his culinary skills when he was 10, cooking a meal for the Queen Mother when she visited Castle Howard, near Malton, where his father was working.

Ryedale's Tory MP John Greenway is calling for the beef-on-the-bone ban to be lifted after Prince Charles and Mr Michael tucked into the meat.

The Prince pronounced delicious the sirloin served to him as he launched a campaign promoting Welsh lamb and beef.

Afterwards, spokesmen for both the Prince and Mr Michael insisted neither had known they would be presented with beef-on-the-bone.

But Mr Greenway said: "I have always said the ban was utterly ridiculous. People should be allowed to make up their own minds. Clearly, Prince Charles agrees."

The MP claimed the Government was now a "prisoner of a bad decision" and Agriculture Minister Nick Brown was losing credibility.

"I hope on this occasion the message will be so loud that he will get the ban lifted," Mr Greenway added.

Meanwhile a protest invasion of York with 50 tractors by North Yorks farmers has been called off.

ANGFAR (Nidderdake Angry Farmers) had planned to invade the city with tractors to coincide with the reappearance in York Crown Court on Thursday of chef Chris Bowman, 36, accused of selling beef-on-the-bone.

Spokesman Mike Bury said today: "When the heir to the throne eats beef-on-the-bone there's no need for us to take to the tractors. We couldn't have got the point over better ourselves."

Conservative health spokesman Alan Duncan told BBC Radio Four's Today programme the incident underlined the case for ditching the ban.

He said: "You have a bigger chance of being struck by lightning than being harmed by eating beef-on-the-bone."

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