Karen serves up winning dish in Tesco Young Cook of the year award

A 13-year-old with a passion for food was yesterday declared the cream of Ireland’s crop of young cooks.

Karen Neville, 13, from Woodstown, Co Waterford, was the youngest of five regional finalists, all girls, vying for the title of Tesco Young Cook of the year that attracted almost 400 entries.

It was Karen’s first attempt at devising a two-course menu using original recipes.

Unfazed by the professional kitchen in CERT House in Dublin and the judges constantly looking over her shoulder Karen served up a winning lamb dish with ingredients costing under 25.

Karen, the Munster regional finalist, won out with her honeyed lamb noisettes, roast root vegetables and rosemary roast potatoes followed by sticky toffee pudding with carmel sauce.

“The winning dish was actually very simple but Karen cooked it beautifully. She also showed a real understanding of the cooking process,” said Biddy White Lennon, one of the five judges.

The judges found while most of the young cooks were learning to cook at school the best of them were encouraged to cook at home as well.

Karen, a first year home economics student at the Ursuline Convent, Waterford, does a lot of cooking at home as well but it was her first time ever to cook a full meal.

Her reason for entering the competition was simple - she just loves to cook and was not at all bothered by the big professional kitchen and judges.

Karen, whose favourite dish is lasagne, was around five when she got her first taste of cooking.

Her mother helped her make cream cakes and she recalled that they tasted very nice too!

Tesco’s head of marketing, Jack McGowan, said they had been sponsoring the competition over the last six years and it was a reflection of the passion for cooking among young people.

“It is a fabulous competition for us to be involved and long may it continue,” he said.