Botanical Cuisine Student wins the Inaugural Irish Food Writing Awards 2022 - Culinary Student Award
Anissa Mokhtari, Year 3, BA(Hons) Botanical Cuisine, TU Dublin (Tallaght) is the proud winner of on the prestigious Irish Food Writing Awards- Culinary Student Award 2022. The award celebrates excellence in recipe writing and cooking.
Recipe writing that included the use of butter and rationale for dish choice was the key focus for the award entry. Finalists where then required to prepare, cook and present the recipes in front of the culinary judges, Jess Murphy (Kai Restaurant, Galway) and Garret Mullins (The Marker Hotel, Dublin.) and award sponsors, Kerrygold.
As a botanical cuisine student, Anissa founded her entry as a celebration of her learning to date on her course including her work placements in Killruddery House and Garden Estate, County Wicklow and her time in Aimsir Restaurant at the Village at Lyons Estate, County Kildare.
Respecting local produce and producers was key. Her dishes incorporated wild foods, produce from the gardens at Kilruddery House and Garden Estate, high quality seafood, local food and drink. The recipe production techniques included a mix of classical and modern cooking and presentation skills.
At the final the judges stated “Anissa you gave us two wonderful plates of food, you can cook. There was instinct in your cooking, you understood the ingredients”. Speaking at the presentation of the awards Suzanne Campbell, Irish Food Writing Awards, stated the dishes were “unbelievable”.