Padraig’s €100k sweet taste of success

Taste of Success winner Padraig McCarthy now has €100,000 to spend, as well as having his product placed on the shelves of over 140 Lidl stores.

The Limerick man, who had to abandon a career as a chef to battle cancer, said the eight-week competition fulfilled his passion to work with food.

“It’s all I ever wanted to do,” he said last night.

Padraig still has health problems. He’s on kidney dialysis and was recently placed on the transplant list.

His product — Irish Beef Short Ribs with a Pancetta and Cider Sauce — will be part of Lidl’s Heat Eat and Enjoy range. It was one 32 products out of the 600 showcased in the all-Ireland competition that was televised on RTÉ 1.

Runner-up was Creagh Moore, a sous chef at the Royal Irish Yacht Club in Dún Laoghaire, Co Dublin.

He first made his high-protein, low-fat chicken broth to encourage his mother to eat while she was receiving cancer treatment.

Disappointed but proud of how far he had come, Creagh said he knew he had created a fantastic product and was proud of that.

The competition was watched by over 340,000 people each week.

Lidl’s associate director of purchasing Liam Casey said they were fully confident that Padraig’s beef ribs was the right product.

“It tastes fantastic, is made with quality Irish beef and we have no doubt that this will be a fantastic addition to our Heat Eat and Enjoy range,” she said.

The Taste of success chef mentor, Paul Flynn, said he was genuinely impressed with how innovative some of the products were.