Winner of Young Chef of Year announced

Young Dublin-based chef Matt Logan has won the Euro-Toques Young Chef of the Year title.

The 22-year-old chef de partie at Chapter One, Dublin, trumped his rivals with a Japanese-inspired dish of poached turbot with seaweed butter.

One of Logan’s co-finalist Ian McHale also works as a chef de partie at Chapter One .

The five finalists put finishing touches to their work at Cooks Academy in Dublin on Sunday. Sleep deprivation was a feature for all five.

Ian McHale had three or four americanos to boost his wakefulness. Luke Ahearne had five or six cups of black coffee.

And John Fitzmaurice ingested no caffeine, but adrenaline gave him what he called "chef shake" while he arranged his entries for the final. "When you come to the finals . . . your hands shiver like this," said Fitzmaurice (25), sous chef at the Mustard Seed, Ballingarry, Co Limerick.

The country’s best young chefs aged 18 to 26 were competing for a prize of two weeks of work experience at the two Michelin-star London restaurant The Square. They were trying to impress judges before preparing dinner for 200 guests.

For the theme of this year’s competition, No Chef is an Island, Fitzmaurice prepared a dish of turbot poached in Guinness with spelt berries and pumpkin and leeks from the garden at The Mustard Seed. For Ahearne (22) chef de partie at Campagne in Kilkenny, the theme referred to the teamwork from his colleagues at the French-influenced restaurant.

Chris Fullam, a third-year culinary student at DIT, was the youngest finalist this year at 21.