Finalists for Young Chef Award Announced

By Steve Wynne-Jones
Finalists for Young Chef Award Announced

Five of Ireland's best young talents have been announced as the finalists of the Euro-Toques Young Chef Competition.

The five nominees will battle it out to win the award on 29 November at Dublin's Shelbourne Hotel in front of guest judge Clare Smyth, chef patron at Restaurant Gordon Ramsay.

The Euro-Toques Young Chef Competition is celebrating its 28th year and previous winners include well-known chefs such as Neven Maguire, Gearoid Lynch and Mark Moriarty, recent winner of the San Pellegrino Young Chef of the Year 2015 award.

The five young chefs vying to become the next winner are:

- John Fitzmaurice, 26, Head Chef at Moloughney’s, Clontarf
- Ruth Lappin, 22, Chef de Partie at Restaurant Patrick Guilband
- Conor Halpenny, 20, Chef de Partie at Brabazon Restaurant, Tankardstown House
- Robert Browne, 21, Loam restaurant, Galway.
- Roseanne Meehan, 24, Junior Sous Chefat Knockranny House Hotel.

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The theme of this year’s competition is "Origins of Contemporary Irish Cooking”. The young finalists will have to showcase their interpretation of this theme though their menu creations while keeping Irish provenance and their own influences at the forefront of their minds.

Euro-Toques was established in Brussels in 1986 by five of the top chefs in Europe, including Myrtle Allen. Their purpose was to form a network of chefs committed to quality local food sourcing and to be a voice for the industry to protect Europe’s traditional foods and culinary heritage.