Fourteen of Ireland’s most talented student chefs have won a place in the 2013 Knorr Student Chef of the Year competition. Representing culinary colleges and institutes from across Ireland the student chef finalists will travel to IT Tralee on Wednesday February 27 to battle it out for the title of Best Student Chef in Ireland’s premier student chef competition, including James Gumley from AIT.
The theme of this year’s competition is Seductive Nutrition to coincide with the recent launch of Unilever Food Solutions’ third world menu report that calls on chefs to reduce the calories of their dishes without compromising on taste to help combat the global and national obesity crisis. Rather than creating a new healthy dish, students have been challenged to take a popular dish and give it a healthy twist all under the watchful eye of the judging panel: Mark McCarthy, business development chef at Unilever Food Solutions; TV chef Martin Shanahan of Fishy Fishy restaurant in Cork; TJ O’Connor, head of section, hotel, culinary and tourism department at IT Tralee; and, just announced, celebrity dietitian Paula Mee.
