The winners of the prestigious Young Chef Young Waiter Ireland Awards 2023 have been revealed.
Galway native Stiofán Feeney, who is currently working at Stage Italy in Rome, beat off stiff competition to win the Young Chef award and Francesca Motta, who works at Chapter One in Dublin, won the Young Waiter award. Both will now go on to compete at the world finals in Monaco in November 2023 to celebrate culinary professionals and hospitality excellence.
In the final of the competition, which was held at Titanic Belfast on Tuesday 19th of September, a host of professional young waiters and chefs from Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland took part in a comprehensive judging day with a number of culinary challenges in the kitchen of Titanic Belfast and serving challenges in the Titanic Suite under the watchful eyes of an expert panel of judges. Online judges included Chef Richard Corrigan and chef-proprietor Anna Haugh of Myrtle London, while at the live final Group Executive Chef at Harcourt hotel Collection Gordon Smyth, Noel McMeel of Ebrington Hotel, and Adrian McNally, Titanic Hotel Belfast, part of the Harcourt Hotel Collection, were joined by alongside other well-known advocates for new talent.
Those vying to be crowned Young Chef were given 3.5 hours to create a three-course meal whilst the Young Waiter candidates had to select pairing wines for each course and undertake a number of challenging scenario-based situations before taking part in an interview with the judges.
Industry guests from across the tourism and hospitality industry, including Tourism Northern Ireland, Belfast Met, Hospitality and Tourism (HATS) Network and Harcourt Developments, were invited to attend the final part of the competition for an intimate lunch whilst the judges observed for the final part of the challenge.
Judith Owens MBE, Chief Executive of Titanic Belfast commented: “The Young Chef Young Waiter competition is a fantastic initiative that showcases the up-and-coming stars of those working in hospitality and provides a very important platform to encourage more young talent to pursue a career in the industry.”
“The response to this year’s event has been incredible and we at Titanic Belfast were delighted to give participants the chance to use our kitchen and Titanic Suite to demonstrate their skills and culinary flair to the judges and invited guests. Congratulations to Stiofán Feeney and Francesca Motta and I wish you both the very best at the world final,” Judith continued.
Judge, Chef Richard Corrigan added: “This competition celebrates excellence and promotes culinary arts and hospitality as a career of choice. The judges were very impressed at the extremely high calibre of talent of all of our finalists and each one of them should be very proud of themselves. I look forward to following the careers of our winners, and indeed our fantastic group of finalists, in the years ahead as I am confident they will all have very bright futures.”
About Young Chef Young Waiter Ireland 2023
The Young Chef Young Waiter – Island of Ireland awards promote this hospitality and food culture as a career of choice, a profession and a vocation to a new generation. The competition is open to all young professional chefs and waiters under 28 years of age, from any background, working in the restaurant sector on the island of Ireland.
The unique process of the Young Chef Young Waiter Ireland competition means that entrants will engage with Ireland’s premier industry experts and along the way gain key skills, as well as make new friends in Ireland’s renowned food family.
The Chef and Waiter winning duo from Ireland will join all other country winners for a World Final that will take place in Monaco on 23rd-24th November 2023 and will see the World Champions win a cash prize of US$10,000.
Chef Judges: The expert judges, led by Richard Corrigan, are well known advocates for new talent as well as staunch supporters of Ireland’s food culture and include Derry Clarke; Jordan Bailey; JP McMahon; Michael Tweedie; Gordon Smyth; chef-proprietor Anna Haugh of Myrtle London; Sunil Ghai, Executive Chef Pickle, Dublin and Michelle Darmody, The Irish Examiner.
Waiter and Hospitality Judges: The expert judges include General Manager of The Merrion Hotel, Peter MacCann; Majken Bech-Bailey front of house management at Michelin starred Aimsir; Elaine Murphy Managing Director Woollen Mills Group; Peter White, General Manager of Ballyfin House; Jess Murphy, Chef proprietor Kai Galway, Declan Maxwell Spitalfields Restaurant & Bar, Peter Loughnane the Group Sales and Marketing Director, The Trigon Hotel Group; Master of Wine Alan Crowley; and Raymond Blake, one of Ireland’s leading wine writers.
Image: from L- R: Chef Gordon Smyth (of Redcastle Hotel), Clement Gaffney (Group Hotel Operations Manager for Harcourt Developments) Francesca Motta (winner of Young Waiter) , Lisa Marshall (Director of Sales and Marketing at Harcourt Developments) and Stiofán Feeney (winner of Young Chef Award), pictured this at Titanic Hotel Belfast