Ireland’s most prestigious culinary competition, Euro-toques Young Chef of the Year, is celebrating 21 years of culinary talent in Ireland.
Pictured at the launch of the Eurotoque ‘Young Chef of the Year’ competition at the Merrion Hotel, Dublin are Helen McDaid, Failte Ireland, Geroid Lynch, Eurotoque Commissioner-General and Ian Mannix, BIM.
Ireland’s most prestigious culinary competition, Euro-toques Young Chef of the Year, is celebrating 21 years of culinary talent in Ireland.
Pictured at the launch of the Eurotoque ‘Young Chef of the Year’ competition at the Merrion Hotel, Dublin are Helen McDaid, Failte Ireland, Geroid Lynch, Eurotoque Commissioner-General and Ian Mannix, BIM.
Supported by Bord Iascaigh Mhara(BIM), Irish Sea Fisheries Board and Failte Ireland; The Euro-toques Young Chef of the Year is open to professional chefs and cooks across the island of Ireland, under 25 years of age, and is the only professional culinary competition in the country based around local and artisan food ingredients. Through mentoring and training based prizes, the competition aims to contribute to the professional development of promising young industry professionals.
This year’s competition focuses on seafood and in particular, Dublin Bay Prawns. Contestants must cook a prize winning dish using locally caught prawns and demonstrate their culinary understanding of how to bring out the delicate flavours of one of Ireland’s most sought after shellfish.
BIM is proud to support the competition this year and to work with Eurotoques on promoting Irish seafood to their industry clients. Donal Buckley, BIM’s Business Development Manager explains the rationale behind the agency’s support: ‘We have worked closely with Eurotoques in recent years to build awareness of the quality and variety of Irish seafood on offer, and to assist and develop links between the seafood industry and chefs. Chefs have a pivotal role to play in building Ireland’s reputation for locally sourced ingredients and we are dedicated to ensuring that Ireland retains its excellent name for quality seafood. This competition will generate further awareness for the famous Dublin Bay Prawn, one of Ireland’s most valuable fisheries. I would like to wish all the young chefs the best of luck in the competition and I look forward to tasting the winning dish’
Among the overall prizes, each of the finalists will win a unique food experience with BIM and Failte Ireland. BIM will host a one day practical on-site introduction to the complex world of the seafood industry, visiting a seafood facility and discussing how fish is caught or harvested, bought, and sold, and what this all means to a chef. Failte Ireland will host a Food Tourism road trip – an educational four day food focused road trip taking in ‘hands-on’ cooking time in top professional kitchens, visits to artisan food producers; tastings, demos, unique meal experiences and overnight stays with exemplary Irish food and hospitality operators.
The top prize for the 2011 Young Chef of the Year will be the opportunity of an all-expenses paid stage at the famous Ivy Restaurant in London under Executive Chef Gary Lee. Plus a one week stage at the award winning Michelin star Chapter One restaurant in Dublin under the tutelage of Euro-toques head chef Ross Lewis.
