JAMES STREET SOUTH’S DAVID GILLMORE NAMED THE BEST CHEF IN IRELAND

Adding another accolade to the group’s growing list of achievements, David Gillmore, head chef at Restaurant James Street South, has been named as the Best Chef in Ireland at the prestigious YesChef.ie Awards, which took place recently at the Hodson Bay Hotel & Spa, Athlone.

Now in their second year, the YesChef Awards recognise the contribution of culinary champtions across the whole of Ireland for their commitment to local produce and the world class quality of menus that can be found throughout Ireland.

Niall McKenna, owner of the James Street South Group, is justly proud of his team’s triumph, which comes just weeks after James Street South won the Best Restaurant in Ireland gong at the Georgina Campbell Awards and was also named the Best Restaurant in Northern Ireland for the third time by the Waitrose Good Food Guide.

Niall said, “David is a true visionary and we are creating some of the most exciting menus in the country for our guests. We welcome people from across Ireland on a regular basis who come to enjoy our extensive and varied menus which are committed to local produce.”

The number of categories for the YesChef Awards has more than doubled since the inaugural event in 2014 to take into consideration the over 5,000 nominations that were placed across only 17 original categories.

Shane Smith, publisher of YesChef magazine, said;

“The level of commitment to the hospitality industry is superb and is clearly written in so many menus across Ireland and Northern Ireland. It’s all about the provenance and sourcing the best, thus allowing chefs and restaurants to deliver consistency on a plate, whether a fresh seafood dish, lamb chops or even a great burger; without the farmers, producers and the people who service them, the levels of quality would surely diminish.”

The food provided at the YesChef banquet was prepared and served by a team of Ireland’s best culinary students from Waterford IT, Letterkenny IT and the Southern Regional College in Newry, echoing the James Street South Group’s own commitment to the training and nurturing of the next generation of chef with their own Apprentice Programme.