Clare Anne O’Keefe (34) comes from Clyde Valley in Scotland and lives in Cork. She is single and works for food producers at farmers markets in Cork and Limerick. She has helped organise and teach children’s cookery classes in Cork, and has worked for two seasons in Chalet’s in the Swiss Alps.

Clare Anne says she is obsessed with food, has been cooking for 20 years and is constantly pushing her culinary abilities. Because of her work she centres her cooking on good produce and seasonality.

The dish she cooked to make it into the audition stage was Salad Nicoise; A basil and vodka spray to give an aroma, Tomato essence, cucumber veloute with coriander, roasted green pepper puree, seared tuna rolled in anchovy, black olive and coriander root, pizza verde with artichoke mousse, quails egg and fondant potato. Her audition dish was Quail stuffed with Persian scented rice served with pan roasted Cherries and Spring Onion, Star Anise flavoured sauce and a Saffron and Almond Tuille.