Mark Moriarty from Dublin has won the San Pellegrino best young chef in the UK and Ireland in a competition in London.
The 23-year-old from Blackrock impressed judges with his signature vegetarian dish of Celeriac Baked in Barley and Fermented Hay with Cured and Smoked Celeriac, the Irish Times reports.
The dish, made up almost entirely of the unglamorous root vegetable, beat out nine other dishes from nine other contestants to win the top prize.
Moriarty will now represent the UK and Ireland in the world finals at Expo Milan in June. There he will go up against 19 other global finalists chosen from 3,620 chefs across 191 countries.
The judging panel comprised Clare Smyth MBE, Chef Patron at Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, Atul Kochhar, Chef Patron at Benares, Dan Doherty, Executive Chef at Duck & Waffle and Oliver Dunne, owner of Bon Appétit.
Moriarty runs the pop-up restaurant the Culinary Counter which opened in the Canteen at Blackrock Market where for customers tried out the winning dish, as well as many other flavours.
