Shauna Murphy, of Terre Restaurant in Castlemartyr Resort, Co Cork, has been named the Best Young Chef in Ireland by Euro-Toques Ireland.
Originally from Limerick, Murphy has been working as a chef for seven years.
Euro-Toques Ireland is a community of chefs, cooks and producers that champion and preserve Irish culinary heritage by spotlighting traditional cooking methods and fostering producers of local and seasonal artisan products.
These professionals consider themselves the "custodians of Irish food culture" and operate according to the "Euro-Toques Code of Honour", which includes striving for excellent culinary standards as chefs and always working with seasonal, local produce.
The Best Young Chef competition is open to professional chefs under the age of 28. The competition came to a close after six months of judging, with the winners announced at a gala dinner at the Intercontinental Hotel in Dublin on Sunday.
Before that, the final judging round took place in the Dublin Cookery School in Blackrock, where the hopefuls where asked to create two original dishes, a main course with Irish brown crab and lobster, and an original starter or dessert using Velvet Cloud yoghurt.
Murphy cinched her win with a dish of barbecued lobster with a vanilla brown butter bisque reduction and citrus carrot purée, served with a side of barley mixed with lemon grass foam and crispy carrot. She also created a dessert of date pudding with Velvet Cloud sheep yoghurt ice cream, hazelnuts, whiskey caramel and burnt apple.
A super special way to spend a Sunday evening! In the company of so many wonderful new (& old!) industry champions! #youngchefyc2023 @Kevinthornton5 @Edcooney @MerrionHotel @MichaelJMchef @kwanghi_ @Laroussefoods @1826Adare @Declanmaxwell @DominiKemp @garmullins @InterConDublin pic.twitter.com/09ffSM0EUM
— Hugo's Restaurant 🇺🇦 (@hugosrest) October 8, 2023
She was mentored by chef Angelo Vagiotis, who is the chef de cuisine at the one Michelin-starred Terre restaurant. It wasn't her first time competing either, as she had entered the competition last year.
The other finalists on the night were Marcell Palfalusi (Thyme Restaurant), Leticia Miranda (Mae Restaurant), Adam Walsh (1826 Adare), Conor Morrissey (Glovers Alley) and Matthias Beuque (Restaurant Patrick Guilbaud).
They were tasked with preparing their dishes in under two and a half hours, and across three categories: execution and work practice, taste and flavour and presentation.
The finalists cooked in front of an esteemed panel of judges including Paolo Casagrande of three-Michelin star Lasarte in Barcelona, Anna Haugh of Myrtle in London, Ahmet Dede of two-Michelin star dede in Baltimore, Co Cork, Gareth Mullins of Forbes Street at Anantara The Marker, Dublin, and Euro-Toques commissioner general, Kwanghi Chan.
