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A pupil from St Paul's High School, Bessbrook has won the NI finals of the annual Springboard FutureChef competition and will now travel to London next month to represent Northern Ireland at the UK wide finals.
Lubo Mulkerns returned to the competition for a second year and took on competition from six other finalists from schools across the north, including Sofia Pajer from Dalriada School in Ballymoney; Wiktoria Skowronski from St. Aidan’s, Derrylin; Isabella McAuley from Our Lady & St. Patrick’s, Knock; Chloe Leacock from Rainey Endowed, Magherafelt; Aoise Taggert from St. Ciaran’s College, Ballygawley; and Cicilly Dixon from Wallace High School, Lisburn.
The winning menu designed by Lubo to impress the judging panel made up of local chefs, highlighted local produce and impressed with simple flavour packed dishes. For his main course, Lubo prepared baked supreme of free-range chicken, variety of beetroot, steamed leek, pommes maxim, herb salad and white wine cream. For dessert, Lubo created a sweet sensation with deep fried breaded poached apple, almond brittle, salted caramel sauce and Chantilly cream.
The judging panel featured Business Development Chef, Geoff Baird from Henderson Foodservice, sponsors of the competition. Speaking of this year’s competition Geoff said; “We say it every year, but the competition just continues to get bigger and better, and we were all thrilled to see Lubo return and put everything he had learned from last year into his dishes for this year’s competition.
“The level of skill and creativity the students bring to the competition is so impressive, and they are dedicated to learning more and soaking up as much as they can from their professional mentors who put so much time and effort into helping their students learn more about provenance, presentation, taste and of course, minimising waste throughout the process.”
Lubo was mentored by Darragh Dooley, Executive Chef at Killeavy Castle Estate in Newry and he will fly to London to take part in the UK-wide Springboard FutureChef finals on 24 March, competing against the other regional finalists from Wales, Scotland and England.
FutureChef is the annual initiative from Springboard, the charity that is committed to nurturing young talent and promoting the hospitality industry as a great place to work. It is the flagship competition of Springboard’s wider UK educational programme, and is also supported by the Savoy Educational Trust.
Caitriona Lennox, Head of Springboard in Northern Ireland also commented; “Out of 1,100 students from 37 schools across Northern Ireland, we found seven incredible finalists whose passion for local food, cooking and hospitality has only grown throughout this competition.
“Lubo is a worthy winner who has shown confidence in returning to the competition after making it through to the finals last year, and just missing out on being crowned the NI winner. We are all thrilled he returned with even more confidence and knowledge and impressed our judges with his skills and passion. Our students are aged between 13 – 15 years old and continue to display such creativity and composure while under pressure, producing a main course and a dessert for two people within 90 minutes. The endless support from their teachers, parents and guardians and their chef mentors mean they get the best possible start to what we hope will develop into fantastic hospitality careers, nurtured by their schools as our engagement between education and industry continues to thrive."
Catriona thanked sponsors Henderson Foodservice as well as Chef Geoff Baird for his support.
