DkIT Culinary students serve up gold at Chef Ireland 2020
Students from year 2 BA in Culinary Arts, Ryan Dowling and Van Phouc Le took home gold and silver medals along with best in class titles at this years Chef Ireland 2020 competition which took place on 4th & 5th February, in Citywest. The students were awarded the highest marks in the Junior Fish Competition with their dish of Brill, cauliflower and mussel ragu, taking home the gold award and 'Best in Class' for the dish.
This was preceded with a silver medal and 'Best in Class' in the Junior Lamb competition the previous day. The students received high praise from the panel of judges with their professionalism, attention to detail and cooking skills, "they are a credit to DkIT with bright futures ahead" said judge Billy Grimes.
Speaking about their experiences, Ryan Dowling commented;
“We only had 2 weeks to prepare for the competition and it was a great experience competing against our peers from all over the country. We received great support from our fellow students at DkIT but especially our wonderful lecturers. Alan McCabe and Michael McNamara mentored us for the competitions and we couldn't be anymore grateful for thire time, effort and support.”
Another Best in class and Silver medal was won by 2nd year Conor Farrell for his cold display Sacher Torte to round off a fantastic 2 days of competition for the DkIT Students. Head of the Hospitality Department at DkIT, Brianain Erraught was full of praise and noted how the students “have put in a lot of work and it's great to see them rewarded for this, we are very proud of them".
Winning student, Van Phouc commented;
“It is the great chance to compete with young chefs from around the country to see where we are in this culinary industry. Also, I want to challenge myself. As a young chef, we are hungry to get medals. We are so proud to represent Dundalk IT to take part in, and luckily we won the competition.”
Mentored by lecturers Rosemary Leonard, Michael Mc Namara and Alan Mc Cabe, the students also won the Grand Prix prize for DkIT with the highest marks amongst junior entries over the 2 days of competition.
