Mount Charles is celebrating after winning the Chef Ireland Contract Catering Competition gold medal at the Food & Bev Live foodservice event, hosted by the Irish Foodservice Suppliers Alliance (IFSA) at the CityWest Dublin in February.

The team, which was led by Gareth Curran, Head Chef at Mossley Mill in Newtonabbey, took on competitors from Sodexo and Aramark to take first prize with a gourmet three-course meal that had to cost less than €12.50, take no more than two hours to make and be suitable for service in an industrial catering setting.

The winning menu consisted of egg yolk ravioli, smoked cod with parmesan crisp followed by Irish lamb cutlet with crispy lamb and braised lamb pudding and a dessert of baked chocolate cake with vanilla bean ice cream, sea salt caramel and dark chocolate ganache.

The independent judges were impressed with the high standard of teamwork and customer service from chefs Gareth Curran, Marcus Lemon and Linda Rowe and front of house team Janice Stewart and Christopher Telford. The judging panel commented particularly favourably on the culinary techniques used and quality of each of the dishes.

Cathal Geoghegan, Managing Director of Mount Charles said: “We were delighted to win the gold medal at Chef Ireland 2016 and I’d like to congratulate our team. It’s no mean feat to take on your competitors in a public arena and go on to win a national accolade.

“We’re lucky to have some fantastic talent working for us across a multitude of contracts in Ireland and GB and we’re proud to say that across each of our catering sites our dedication to producing the best quality food, using locally sourced produce never wavers.”

For more information on Mount Charles visit www.mountcharles.com