Derry chefs impress at KNORR Student Chef of the Year 2015 Final

Derry chefs Michael Lennon and Gráinne Kerr impressed  at the KNORR Student Chef of the Year 2015 Final final hosted by Belfast Metropolitan College at its state-of-the-art Titantic Quarter Campus recently.

Michael from Bellaghy represented the Northern Regional College, Ballymoney Campus, while Gráinne Turasmore Park represented the North West Regional College took second place at the KNORR Student Chef of the Year 2015 competition after a thrilling cook off. The competition was won by Limerick Institute of Technology student, Jill Holmes.

Celebrating its 18th year in 2015, KNORR Student Chef of the Year, the most celebrated student chef competition, is open to catering colleges, institutes of technology and training centres across the island of Ireland.

Food provenance and sustainability were the orders of the day in Belfast, where the 15 student chef finalists were challenged with creating a vegetarian starter and Irish beef main course. The judging panel led by Unilever Food Solutions’ Executive Chef Mark McCarthy with top chef and restaurateur Mark Sargeant and chef lecturer at Belfast Met Thomas Turley were looking for the student that was best able to showcase local ingredients and produce, while also successfully marrying strong food waste management techniques and an appreciation of the new allergen legislation.

Michael's starter consisted of liqourice roast carrot, fermented carrot, labne, quinoa crisp and golden raisins. His main course was a beer-brined sirloin of beef with marrow crust, salt-baked turnip, kale and beef cheek and smoked potato and horseradish. 

Gráinne prepared a beautiful goats cheese parfait served with a selection of baby beetroots for her starter. Her main course consisted of braised beef cheek served with wild mushroom ravioli and artichoke puree. 

Speaking at the awards presentation, Mark McCarthy said: “The KNORR Student Chef of the Year competition is an ideal platform for the country’s brightest talents to not only demonstrate their culinary flair and talent, but to also develop new skills that are certain to serve them well as they embark on what I am confident will be long, successful careers."

This year, top chef and restaurateur Mark Sargeant joined the judging panel as special guest judge. Mark is a former Chef of the Year (1996), National Chef of the Year (UK, 2002) and was Gordon Ramsey’s right-hand man for 13 years during which time he won a Michelin star as head chef of the Gordon Ramsey at Claridges in London.