Team Ireland wins bronze in international Culinary Olympics competition

Team Ireland took home a bronze medal at the Culinary Olympics in Germany after battling it out against 66 other nations.  Over 1,800 chefs took part in the international showcase event in Stuttgart this month, cooking a full three-course meal for 75 people in the junior category and 110 in the senior category.

Team Ireland junior captain Chris Leech (24), who is from the village of Naul in north County Dublin described the win as a “phenomenal achievement for a small nation”.

“We are over the moon. It really shows that hard work pays off. We only signed up eight months ago and had a small budget unlike many of the bigger nations,” he said.

Mr Leech is a sous chef for catering company Sodexo.

Following in his father’s career path, Mr Leech started off with a catering company while in transition year, and worked his way up through culinary school and worked under world renowned chef Raymond Blanc in the UK.
“I was thrown into the deep end from the start. I was really green while working for him and just soaked up everything like a sponge, writing everything down,” he told the Irish Independent.
After getting the call from the panel of chefs of Ireland, who chose the team through a combination of assessments, Mr Leech travelled to Limerick each week where the team trained for the Culinary Olympics.
They worked on different recipes and dish development for seven or eight hours each session, refining their work over an eight month period, compared to other nations who prepared over the last four years.
The competition, which took place between February 3-7, required teams to cook a full-three course from the ‘Restaurant of Nations’ menu with 70 plates going out, four of these being to unknown judges.
Teams were graded based on their service, plates and overall taste, with the main grading going towards consistency.

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