Jody Seed, representing Southern Regional College, Newry, has been crowned KNORR Student Chef of the Year 2016 after a thrilling cook-off hosted by Athlone Institute of Technology (AIT ).
Not only did Jody overcome a challenging theme set out by KNORR, he also successfully fought off the challenge of 14 other rising stars to claim the top prize, one of those being AIT student Raminta Astrauskaite who claimed third place in the final.
Students were challenged to create a starter using sustainable Irish seafood and a main course celebrating Irish venison. Students were also asked to demonstrate an understanding of the challenges of culinary sustainability, food waste management, and allergen awareness.
Raminta displayed her culinary skills with a starter of ‘Ceviche of herring with sea buckthorn mustard and cucumber’. For her main course, she dished up ‘loin of sika deer rubbed with vadouvan spice and served with chestnut puree and sweet potato’.
Celebrating its 19th year in 2016, KNORR Student Chef of the Year is open to catering colleges, institutes of technology and training centres across Ireland. The theme of this year’s competition was ‘The Future of Irish Cuisine’ and focused on celebrating Irish ingredients and cooking methods.
Jody Seed impressed the judges with his trio of seafood ‘Pot-roasted turbot, ragout of mussels, leeks, bacon, cider and poached oyster, lemon confit and oyster foam’. For his main course, he served a ‘roast haunch of venison with red cabbage, pickled pear marmalade, parsnip puree, charred tender stem broccoli, glazed carrot and garlic kale’.
Guest judge, Mark Moriarty, said of this year’s competition: “The standard of entries this year was extremely high. There is so much talent on the island and KNORR Student Chef of the Year is a wonderful way of recognising the creative thinking and innovative ideas of the next generation of top-class chefs. I was really impressed by how important local produce is to the students and how they married that with great tasting dishes.”
