How to conquer the world: Mark Moriarty's Celeriac.

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Remember the dish: Celeriac baked in barley and fermented hay with cured and smoked celeriac.
That is the dish with which Ireland's Mark Moriarty, of the Culinary Counter, won the San Pellegrino Young Chef of the Year Award, edging out Norway's Christian Pettersen and Peru's Maria Jose Jordan.
And consider the dish: winning a tough international competition with a vegetarian dish, focussed on one ingredient. Wade Murphy, the Euro-toques commissioner-general put it perfectly when he said: “The first time he showed up with a celeriac in his hands, I remember thinking: this is either genius or madness. Presenting a vegetarian dish based on a humble root vegetable at a worldwide competition was inspiring if not daring. His technical prowess through the imaginative application of six different techniques for the one humble ingredient is truly inspiring. I am delighted, but not surprised, with Mark’s victory and I hope he will use this opportunity to grow and put Ireland on the map of the culinary world’.
Remember the dish, and remember the name: Mark Moriarty, a young man who started his journey in Dingle's Chart House Restaurant, aged 15, under the watchful of owner Jim McCarthy

 

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