Daniel Skukalek has been poring over the Noma cookbook since he got his hands on it a while ago. He was intrigued by the simplicity of the food and the methods, such as deliberately burning food to add flavour. Next month he will smell and taste the real thing when he visits René Redzepi’s Copenhagen restaurant as his prize for being named Ireland’s top student chef.
The 23-year-old Slovakian came to Ireland in 2007 when he was recruited by a large hotel. He had been cooking since he was a teenager, but he found the hotel kitchen less than inspiring – so he left to work with Donegal chef Gary O’Hanlon at a fine dining restaurant in Viewmount House, a country house hotel in Longford. He signed up for a culinary arts diploma at Athlone Institute of Technology and last month he was selected to represent the college at the Knorr Student Chef of the Year.
At the final, nine student chefs had two hours to cook a starter and main course for four judges. “I wasn’t very confident. I went there just to enjoy it for the experience, so it was a great surprise to win,” Skukalek says.
Coming to Ireland has definitely expanded his ideas about gastronomy, he says. The produce is better here. “You can grow more vegetables here than we can in Slovakia.” And despite the recession, most diners here have more money to spend in restaurants than in Slovakia.
For the competition he made a scallop served on samphire with a prawn bisque and for main course, a stuffed saddle of rabbit served with risotto. O’Hanlon let his sous chef practise his starter by putting it on the menu at Viewmount House on Valentine’s night.
“I roasted the prawns in their shells on a pan with vegetables and then finished them in the oven. From this I made a stock, which gave a very strong flavour. The samphire is from the sea, so it still has seawater on the inside, and then there was the sweetness of the scallop on top, served with the bisque and a lemon foam on the top.”
The rabbit was boned and stuffed with a chicken mousse, pistachios and baby spinach. The meat was then wrapped in Parma ham, poached and finished in the oven. The bones were used for stock and the kidneys were used in the risotto, along with wild mushrooms and chestnuts. The dish was finished with a garnish including sweet potato, turnip, pear, pine nuts and golden raisins.
And what are Skukalek’s plans for the future? He may carry on studying here or head to the US if he can get a scholarship. David McCann, head chef at Dromoland Castle, one of the competition judges, said all the students had shown a “sure hand in the kitchen” but praised Daniel Skukalek’s “exceptional skill”.
