Twenty-year old Shane Dillon from Quin in Clare—a second-year student—was awarded the top prize ahead of eight other finalists at Athlone IT last weekend.

Shane—who was also awarded the Overall Hygiene Award—won a gold medal and a trip to the Lisbon ‘HORExpo’, the International trade fair for the hotel and catering industry.

Each finalist in the prestigious competition had to create a recipe for both a starter and a main course using a minimum of two Knorr products.

The entries were then reviewed by a panel of expert judges chaired by Willie Somers, the Executive Chef at Unilever Foodsolutions.

Shane’s winning menu was complimented by judges as “different and full of flavour as well as being superbly presented”.

It featured a starter of pan-roasted scallop with quail egg, seared sea bass on sautéed potato, cabbage with vanilla sauce along with Dublin Bay prawns with fresh tomato salsa.

His main course consisted of a roast loin of venison with red cabbage braised with port and apple accompanied by a chilli game sausage, fondant potato and celeriac puree.

Mr Somers, said that the judges were “very impressed with the overall standard of this year’s entrants”.

“The judging panel therefore had to look for exceptional quality, innovation and yet practicality in the winning dishes.

We judge on creativity, workmanship, composition and presentation and Shane’s menu rated very highly in each of these areas.”

Comments (0) »

Show/Hide comment form

Name

Email

Title

Comment

Write the displayed characters

Add Comment