AIT student competes in top chef competition

Enda McManus from Athlone Institute of Technology was one of ten chefs to battle it out in the 2012 Knorr Student Chef of the Year competition held in CIT this week. Enda, an Athlone native, whose menu included a starter of Moy salmon with dillisk dust, new quay crab and Dublin Bay prawns dipped in a Guinness batter, was presented with a certificate of achievement by Jim Reeves, Customer Director, Unilever Food Solutions Ireland, who also congratulated him on the originality of his menu and the innovative way in which he used locally sourced produce in his recipes. His main course fused farm and forest ingredients and featured a seared loin of venison and black pudding mousse with baked potato layers, glazed pear and cider sauce and a carrot puree. The theme of the competition was Irish fusion and students had just two hours to create a starter and main course that would impress the judging panel of Martin Shanahan from RTE tv show Martin's Mad About Fish, Mark McCarthy of Unilever Food Solutions and chef lecturer at CIT Ciarán Scully. The winner of the competition was CIT student Shane Deane from Kilbrittan, Co Cork, who won a bespoke perpetual trophy, a trip to Heston Blumenthal's award-winning restaurant, The Fat Duck, in London and a food photography experience with gastro photographer Gareth Morgans. Completing the top three winners were Keith Pigott from IT Tralee and Roisin Ni Shuilleabhain Haughton from Limerick IT, who finished in second and third place respectively. Roisin also won the 2012 Knorr Student Chef of the Year Hygiene award.