S.Pellegrino Young Chef 2015 | Harrods

Mark Moriarty from The Culinary Counter was crowned the UK winner of the S.Pellegrino Young Chef 2015 competition last night, after a tense cook off at Harrods.

The 23-year-old from Dublin beat nine other finalists, wowing the judges with his dish of celeriac baked in barley and fermented hay with cured and smoked celeriac. He said: "You never think you are going to win! I was confident in what I was doing and confident in my dish, winning was a relief that I got the job done. "I chose to do a celeriac and hay dish because I wanted to reflect my region and I wanted to show off my skills. I'm proud to have done a vegetarian dish and to have done it well." The 10 finalists all had to produce their signature dish and present it to the judges who were Clare Smyth MBE, Chef Patron at Restaurant Gordon Ramsay; Daniel Doherty, Executive Chef at Duck and Waffle; Atul Kochhar, one of the most critically acclaimed chefs in British Indian cooking and Oliver Dunne, owner of Bon Appétit, County Dublin. Their

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decision to award Mark the winning title was unanimous and Clare Smyth will now mentor him in preparation for the world final which takes place at the Italian Pavillion of EXPO in Milan in June. Mark will compete against the finalists from 19 other world regions chosen from 3,620 chefs across 191 countries, once again presenting his signature dish.

Clare said: "It's a really exciting competition and it's on a world stage, so it's a great opportunity for young chefs to show case their talent but also experience new ways of cooking and different ingredients. "Mark was the first one up tonight and it's fair to say he had put a lot of work into his dish. His dish stood out with its flavour, unforgettable theatre and true message behind it.You could see he was confident in what he cooked. It was very creative and I think the simplicity of it was what really appealed." She added: "There was a high level of cooking tonight and it's great to see that British talent coming through."

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