Local finalist in Young Chef Competition

Twenty-year-old Conor Halpenny, a chef de partie at the Brabazon Restaurant in Tankardstown House, Rathkenny, Slane, is one of five finalists in the Euro-Toques Young Chef Competition.
This is the 28th year of the prestigious competition, which has produced high calibre chefs including Neven Maguire, Gearoid Lynch and Mark Moriarty who won the title of San Pellegrino World Young Chef champion earlier this year – after claiming the title of Euro-Toques Young Chef of the Year in 2013.
Speaking at the event Conor said: “Cooking was bred into me - baking with my mam, cooking with my dad, my uncles too. I was surrounded by home cooking, I love the buzz of the kitchen.”
The theme of this year’s competition is 'Origins of Contemporary Irish Cooking’. The young finalists will have to showcase their interpretation of this theme though their menu creations while keeping Irish provenance and their own influences at the forefront of their minds.
Euro-Toques Ireland’s challenge for these young chefs has been run over three months and will culminate on final day, November 29th when the finalists will spend that morning undertaking a grueling culinary skills test, followed by prepping and serving food for the esteemed guests at an exclusive gala banquet at Dublin’s historic Shelbourne Hotel, when the winner will be announced.
This year’s ultimate prize includes an all expenses paid trip to Gordon Ramsay’s flagship restaurant – Restaurant Gordon Ramsey. Clare Smyth, an MBE and Northern Irish Chef is Chef Patron at Restaurant Gordon Ramsay and will be the special guest judge for the Euro-Toques Young Chef of the Year 2015 final.