Skibbereen Community School is delighted to congratulate Poppy Kilpatrick in TY, who won the All-Island Final Cookery Competition on Wednesday, in ATU, St Angela’s in Sligo.
Poppy’s performance was formidable on the day. A team of expert judges, led by celebrity chef, Neven Maguire were blown away by Poppy’s expert knowledge of food, her creativity & her culinary skills.
Poppy outclassed many skilled competitors north and south of the border to win the competition, claiming the ultimate prize. It is a fantastic achievement and we in Skibbereen Community School are exceptionally proud of her.
“It has been a life changing experience for me, to be able to represent my school, at a competitive level in an All-Ireland competition.”
Poppy’s dish consisted of:
Nettle & wild garlic pesto, gnocchi with nettle infused oil and homemade mozzarella.
Poppy used nettles & wild garlic found in her garden which are rich in nutrients, antioxidants and vitamins A and C. For the gnocchi Poppy used Irish locally grown potatoes, local eggs, (Caroline @ West Cork Eggs), and Gloun milk (Gloun Cross Dairy, Dunmanway) for the mozzarella cheese. Pine nuts were also added in to enhance the texture and fibre. Wild garlic was added to help the immune system. Gnocchi is a healthy filling dish, it's boiled, doesn't contain unhealthy oils that are commonly used in fried dishes.
Judges were particularly impressed by Poppy’s ability to make her own mozzarella cheese during the competition, within the permitted cooking time.
Neven Maguire praised Poppy’s ingenuity, stating that he had never seen a student make cheese from scratch in a competitive setting before.
Poppy’s ingredients in her dish were inspired by her mum’s suggestion of foraging outside,
“When I went to cook for the competition, I realised that there wasn't anything in the house and my mum said that she wasn't going to the shop. Little did she know that her casual suggestion ‘see what you can find outside and let nature be your guide’ would become the inspiration for the winning dish.”
But the icing on the cake, was a personal invite from celebrity chef Neven Maguire for Poppy, along with 12 of her classmates, to attend his cookery school @ Neven Maguire Cookery school-MacNean House.
Poppy is also invited to Dunnes Stores headquarters in Dublin to work with Neven in their product development kitchen.
She also received a €300:00 voucher from Dunnes Stores for herself and a voucher for the school.
Poppy previously excelled in the Macroom Food Festival cookery competition and has pursued her passion further, by recently completing her work experience at Restaurant Chestnut, (Michelin star restaurant) in Ballydehob and also at Liss Ard Estate, in Skibbereen.
Congratulations again to Poppy.
