A County Derry man has been shortlisted in a ‘life changing’ competition to find the UK’s best young chef.
The Roux Scholarship is the biggest UK competition for chefs under 30 and previous winners have gone on to head some of the UK’s top kitchens and earn Michelin stars.
Ryan Porter, 29, was raised in Magherafelt from the age of five when he moved up from Wexford, and has reached the semi final of the competition.
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“To go on to win this would be a huge achievement. It would just be one small step to where I want to go and what I want to do but to win this competition it’s life changing, it really is,” he said.
“It would just show that no matter what kind of background you’ve come from, or what you’ve done in your life, great things can happen if you truly believe in yourself.”
The competition has 18 semi finalists who were selected after submitting written recipes that used striploin of dry-aged beef, a beef offal ingredient and Belgian chicory.
They were submitted anonymously to the judges, who took part in the Recipe Judging day at Roux at The Waterside Inn on 22 February 2023.
The semifinalists will compete in two regional finals which will be held simultaneously on Thursday 9th March 2023 at University College Birmingham and University of West London, Ealing.
This is the last year Ryan will be eligible for the competition.
“I believe I can [win it] but it’s whoever turns up on the day: anything can happen. You just have to believe in yourself; you can be the best chef in the country but you still might not win it because all that matters is what happens on that day,” he said.
“No one remembers the semi finalists, no one remembers the finalists, everyone remembers the people who win it like Mark Burchill, two Michelin stars, and Sat Bains, two Michelin stars,” he added.
This is the second time Ryan has entered the competition. He reached the final five years ago – only the third person from the North to do so.
This year two chefs from the North are in the semifinal with Dillon Smyth from Antrim also competing.
Journey so far
Ryan moved to England seven years ago seeking out mentors at top restaurants in the country. He is eager to learn various techniques from people who are the best at what they do.
“I moved over to England when I was 22 and put myself in the best restaurants I possibly could. I knew that if I wanted to be good at cooking I had to move to England because it had more opportunities and the standard of food was a lot higher.