Great British Menu 2012, Northern Ireland Heat Preview

Richard Corrigan on Irish food and St Patrick's Day

Great British Menu 2012, Northern Ireland Heat Preview

by Great British Chefs29 April 2012

Week Four of the seventh series of The Great British Menu and it's the turn of Northern Ireland.

Great British Menu 2012, Northern Ireland Heat Preview

Week Four of the seventh series of The Great British Menu and it's the turn of Northern Ireland.

Great British Chefs is a team of passionate food lovers dedicated to bringing you the latest food stories, news and reviews.

Great British Chefs is a team of passionate food lovers dedicated to bringing you the latest food stories, news and reviews as well as access to some of Britain’s greatest chefs. Our posts cover everything we are excited about from the latest openings and hottest food trends to brilliant new producers and exclusive chef interviews.

Great British Chefs is a team of passionate food lovers dedicated to bringing you the latest food stories, news and reviews.

Great British Chefs is a team of passionate food lovers dedicated to bringing you the latest food stories, news and reviews as well as access to some of Britain’s greatest chefs. Our posts cover everything we are excited about from the latest openings and hottest food trends to brilliant new producers and exclusive chef interviews.

This week (starting 30th April 2012) it's the turn of Northern Ireland. On Monday they'll be presenting their starters, Chris Bell is making tea and biscuits, with added rabbit, rhubarb salad and black pudding. Niall will be hoping to impress veteran judge Richard Corrigan with pig sweetbreads, black truffle & baked onion. Chris Fearon is hoping his "clay pigeon shoot" (pigeon served in a clay pigeon on a tray made of shotgun cartridges) will hit the right target.

On Tuesday, they move onto a fish course, on Wednesday main course and on Thursday it's the turn of desserts. For each of those days they will have to impress veteran judge Richard Corrigan (who recently joined Great British Chefs site) before going through to Friday's final.

Renowned as both a chef and restaurateur, Richard Corrigan is undoubtedly one of the most distinguished figures on the British culinary scene. He has cooked for 10 Downing Street, released cookery books and been a winner on Great British Menu himself in 2006.

Richard understands the ‘farm to fork philosophy’ – now practised by most fine eateries across the land - better than most, having been brought up as one of seven children on a 25 acre farm in County Meath, Ireland.

He left Ireland aged 17 and spent four years cooking in the Netherlands before progressing to become Head Chef of Mulligan’s in Mayfair. His first Michelin star was awarded when he was Head Chef of Stephen Bull’s Fulham Road, London restaurant in 1994. His flagship fine dining restaurant, though, is Corrigan’s Mayfair, which opened its doors in October 2009 to wide acclaim.

Over recent years, the success of his restaurants and the accessibility of his cooking has allowed Richard Corrigan to enjoy a healthy media profile. He has made appearances on everything from Saturday Kitchen to Something for the Weekend and also hosted his own show on Irish television station RTE – Corrigan Knows Food.

On Friday the two chefs who received the most points from Richard for the week will cook their dishes again for restaurateur and cookery writer, Prue Leith, fellow restaurateur and businessman, Oliver Peyton, and food journalist and author, Matthew Fort. Matthew is Great British Chefs strategic advisor who also blogs for us and writes the introductions for a number of our ingredient collections. The winner will go into the finals (joining Alan Murchison who won the Scottish round, Daniel Clifford who won the Central round and Colin McGurran who won the North East round).