Rathdrum student best chef in Wicklow

Alan Hamilton from Avondale Community College, Rathdrum has been named the best student chef in Co. Wicklow. That’s according to the Uncle Ben’s School’s Cookery Competition 2002 whose annual search for the best student chef of the year is underway.

Pupils from every secondary school in Ireland were invited to submit their recipes and from nearly 800 entries were received.

Creator of the best dish in the county!

Alan’s recipe ‘Crispy duck skin and spinach rice pancakes with stir fried duck and veg’ has been selected as the best dish in the county!

Alan has always had a great interest in cooking. Using culinary know-how and a considerable degree of imagination he had to create an Oriental, Indian, Chinese or Mexican themed party dish, suitable for six friends using Uncle Ben’s rice as the main ingredient. To enable the chef to socialise at this party, preparation time for the dish could not exceed one hour.

The prize this year is the opportunity to work for a day with elite Irish chef Derry Clarke at L’Ecrivain and add their winning meal to the L’Ecrivain menu The winner will also receive a Dell Home Computer System including printer, scanner and webcam, plus the Uncle Ben's School's Cookery Perpetual Trophy plus €1,300 worth of electrical equipment for the Home Economics department at their school.

From the 26 county winners, six will later be chosen as regional finalists to represent all corners of Ireland at the national final to be held in Dublin on April 29th.

This, the fourteenth year of the Uncle Ben’s School’s Cookery Competition, has seen the highest ever level of entries. Almost 800 recipes using Uncle Ben's rice were received, all of which were of an extremely high standard.