Professional Cookery students Michelle McCormack and Liviu Morosan from the School of Culinary Arts & Food Technology in TU Dublin swept the boards at the recent Chef Ireland National Competitions held at the National Catering Exhibition (CATEX). The national exhibition, which ran over three days in the RDS, attracted over 400 chefs from Ireland’s best hotels, restaurants, pubs and culinary colleges.
Third-Year student Michelle McCormack’s outstanding performances saw her awarded two gold medals for her Chicken Sauté Dish and a three-course gourmet meal, plus a silver medal in the junior pork competition. She was also awarded the gold medal and trophy for the overall hygiene winner from the Food Safety Professional Association and the show’s top prize – Junior Grand Prix and gold medal for the overall best junior competitor. Liviu Morosan, also a Third-Year Professional Cookery Student, was won the gold medal in the three-course gourmet meal and a silver award in the Asian cuisine competitions.
Speaking about the experience, Michelle and Liviu said, ‘It was a great honour to be awarded these medals at this level, thanking Manor Farm for their support; they added Culinary Arts has already opened up a world of opportunities for them both which they had never previously imagined’.
Congratulating Michelle and Liviu’s, their mentor George Smith, a Lecturer in Culinary Arts at TU Dublin, stated that ‘This is a very exciting and rewarding time for young chefs adding that the goal of TU Dublin at our new state of the art food and culinary arts facilities based on the Grangegorman Campus is to raise the profile of the culinary arts, and to try to encourage more young people to consider it as a career option‘.
