County Derry man in the running for 'life changing' UK best young chef competition

A County Derry man has been shortlisted in a 'life changing’ competition to find the UK's best young chef.

The Roux Scholarship is the biggest UK competition for chefs under 30 and previous winners have gone on to head some of the UK’s top kitchens and earn Michelin stars.

Ryan Porter, 29, was raised in Magherafelt from the age of five when he moved up from Wexford, and has reached the semi final of the competition.

“To go on to win this would be a huge achievement. It would just be one small step to where I want to go and what I want to do but to win this competition it's life changing, it really is,” he said.

“It would just show that no matter what kind of background you've come from, or what you've done in your life, great things can happen if you truly believe in yourself.”

The competition has 18 semi finalists who were selected after submitting written recipes that used striploin of dry-aged beef, a beef offal ingredient and Belgian chicory.

They were submitted anonymously to the judges, who took part in the Recipe Judging day at Roux at The Waterside Inn on 22 February 2023.

The semifinalists will compete in two regional finals which will be held simultaneously on Thursday 9th March 2023 at University College Birmingham and University of West London, Ealing.

This is the last year Ryan will be eligible for the competition.

“I believe I can [win it] but it's whoever turns up on the day: anything can happen. You just have to believe in yourself; you can be the best chef in the country but you still might not win it because all that matters is what happens on that day,” he said.

“No one remembers the semi finalists, no one remembers the finalists, everyone remembers the people who win it like Mark Burchill, two Michelin stars, and Sat Bains, two Michelin stars,” he added.

This is the second time Ryan has entered the competition. He reached the final five years ago – only the third person from the North to do so.

This year two chefs from the North are in the semifinal with Dillon Smyth from Antrim also competing.

Journey so far

Ryan moved to England seven years ago seeking out mentors at top restaurants in the country. He is eager to learn various techniques from people who are the best at what they do.

“I moved over to England when I was 22 and put myself in the best restaurants I possibly could. I knew that if I wanted to be good at cooking I had to move to England because it had more opportunities and the standard of food was a lot higher.

“The standard in Northern Ireland is getting there but it's just a bit behind.”

When he moved to England he linked up with Aiden Byrne - the youngest chef to be awarded a Michelin star.

He started cooking in Aiden's pub and lived in a room above it. He did eight months there before moving on to the Michelin star restaurant, Northcote Manor, just outside Blackburn. Here Ryan worked under Lisa Allen, winner of the BBC cooking show Great British Menu, and says it was here he really started to fall in love with food.

After a year there Ryan first entered the Roux Scholarship scholarship competition.

When he lost out in the final Ryan kept striving to improve and started working at the two Michelin star Midsummer House. Here he worked with Chef Daniel Clifford and Head Chef Mark Abbott from Antrim.

After a year he moved on to the two Michelin star Whatley Manor where he worked with Niall Keating who won the Michelin Young European Chef award in 2018.

He left Whatley Manor and started a private dining business but realised that wasn't what he wanted.

He's currently head chef at The Double Red Duke pub in Oxfordshire where everything is fresh and cooked over an open fire.

Goal is to change the industry

The goal for Ryan, with or without the scholarship, is to open his own restaurant with a healthier workplace environment than many of the top kitchens.

“There's a crisis in the industry at the minute. There's staff shortages and I believe that's down to how staff are treated – a lot of chefs are bullies. A lot of kitchens are intense and they shouldn't be that way. So I'd like to go on and change that,” he said.

“And I want to actually show the kids that there is a career in this. I only have one GCSE and some people think if you're not smart and you don't have a degree you go and work in a kitchen.

“It's not that job anymore; there's a great career in cheffing and I want to show the kids that and mentor them rather than making them scared to work in a kitchen.”

“It's not a nice environment to work in. I've seen it myself, I've been in those kitchens. You have to

have a strong will to survive those kitchens and everyone's different, everyone has a different personality so you cant treat everyone the same. That's why I want to change the industry.”

If Ryan is successful in the semifinal he will join five other finalists at Westminster Kingsway College in London.

The judges for the final cook-off will be: Alain Roux, Michel Roux Jr, Brian Turner CBE, André Garrett, Sat Bains, Simon Hulstone, Rachel Humphrey and Angela Hartnett and an unannounced honourary President of Judges.