SKIBBEREEN Community School TY student Poppy Kilpatrick won the All-Island Final Cookery Competition which took place recently in Sligo.
Poppy with her award.A team of expert judges led by celebrity chef Neven Maguire were blown away by Poppy’s knowledge of food, her creativity and her culinary skills.
Her dish consisted of nettle and wild garlic pesto, gnocchi with nettle-infused oil and homemade mozzarella and judges were particularly impressed by Poppy’s ability to make her own mozzarella cheese within the permitted time.
Poppy’s ingredients in her dish were inspired by her mum’s suggestion of foraging and she used nettles and wild garlic found in her garden.
‘When I went to cook for the competition, I realised that there wasn’t a huge amount of ingredients at home and my mum encouraged me to be resourceful and creative,’ she said.
Little did she know that her wise words became the inspiration for the winning dish!
The icing on the cake was a personal invite from Neven for Poppy, along with 12 of her classmates, to attend his cookery school.
She is also invited to Dunnes Stores’ headquarters in Dublin to work with Neven in their product development kitchen.
She also received a €300 voucher from Dunnes Stores for herself and a voucher for the school.
Poppy previously excelled in the Macroom Food Festival cookery competition.
She has also pursued her passion further by recently completing her work experience at the Michelin-star Restaurant Chestnut in Ballydehob and also at the Liss Ard Estate hotel restaurant, outside Skibbereen.
