Young Chef from Knockranny House Hotel wins Euro-toques Young Chef of the Year Competition

Mary Ryan, an accomplished chef from Knockranny House Hotel, working under the mentorship of multi award-winning Head Chef Seamus Commons, has just been announced as the overall winner of the Euro-toques Young Chef of the Year Competition.

The prestigious Euro-toques Young Chef of the Year Competition seeks out excellent cooks who think about what is happening beyond the kitchen, such as where their ingredients come from and how they are sourced and produced.

As the overall winner, Mary receives a €1000 cash prize along with mentoring and training from Head Chefs in renowned hotels and restaurants, including an all-expenses paid stage in the double Michelin-starred restaurant The Ledbury in Notting Hill, London together with a week-long stage of discovery with the boutique Chocolaterie de L’Opera in France.

24-year-old Mary Ryan was selected from hundreds of entrants to become one of the national competition’s five finalists. She competed for the Euro-toques Young Chef of the Year crown in the contest’s final test, the Culinary Skills Test, in Dublin last Sunday 28th November, where she designed and presented a sophisticated lamb dish – roast rack of hill lamb, kidney sausage, wild mushroom and sweet bread tortellini, turnip, kale, lovage dauphine and fennel seed dew. This was tasted and judged by 5 top chefs, including Brett Graham and Neven Maguire.

Mary has been working at La Fougère, which was recently awarded Best Hotel Restaurant 2010 by the Restaurant Association of Ireland.

Knockranny House Hotel’s owner Adrian Noonan is thrilled with Mary’s win. “Mary has been with us since early last year and we recognised her talent from the word go,” he said. “We are absolutely delighted that she has won such a significant national competition – she has done the whole team here at Knockranny House Hotel proud!”

Euro-toques Young Chef of the Year Mary Ryan trained in Professional Cookery at Limerick IT and attended Johnson & Wales University in Rhode Island, USA on scholarship.  She now works at Knockranny House Hotel under her mentor & Head Chef, Seamus Commons, who is also a member of Euro-toques. Under Seamus’ expert guidance, Mary has been developing her natural passion for sourcing and using the finest local ingredients in her cooking.

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