Keira first started working in kitchens when she was 15 years old. She worked at a restaurant situated on the grounds of a house and gardens, which included a walled garden that supplied the restaurant with vegetables. The restaurant also had a few beehives from which they spun honey in the kitchen. It was a very small team of just herself and one other chef named Damien. When Damien left, she followed him and helped open his new restaurant, The Banks. She learned a lot at The Banks, working multiple sections and gaining valuable skills and experience.

When she turned 18, she had planned on attending catering college, but instead, she applied to the Simon Rogan Academy and was accepted. After a year and a half at The Banks, she moved from Ireland to the Lake District to begin her apprenticeship at Rogan & Co. in Cartmel. She worked there for eight months before moving to Henrock on Lake Windermere for six months, and then to L’Enclume, for another six months. During this apprenticeship, she gained immense knowledge, with each restaurant offering different styles of food. This experience allowed her to develop skills in various cooking techniques and flavour pairings. Working alongside many remarkable chefs in Simon’s restaurants was incredibly rewarding.

Working at Henrock

Keira has now completed her apprenticeship and works at Henrock, where the team is striving to achieve a Michelin star under the new head chef, Mark McCabe. Henrock is an exciting restaurant, aiming to create a menu that reflects Simon’s travels while utilising local ingredients. This approach enables them to think creatively about what they can produce with the resources around them. As a demi chef de partie, she has been working on the sauce section for the past six months. It has been a great learning experience, teaching her how to prep a variety of proteins and sauces, as well as how to manage waste and keep the menus seasonal.

Making the final

When her Young National Chef of the Year (YNCOTY) jacket arrived, she was so happy as it felt like all her hard work on her entry had paid off. She felt very excited to have been given such a great opportunity to push herself within the hospitality industry.

Keira has wanted to be a chef for as long as she can remember. She was always cooking at home with her mum and grew up on a sheep farm where they also grew their own vegetables. She enjoyed preparing these ingredients and discovering new uses for them in various recipes, so becoming a chef seemed like a natural career path. She found it fascinating how something so amazing could come from right outside her front door, and this practice of utilising locally sourced ingredients is something she continues to embrace in her work today.

She wanted to be part of YNCOTY because it is one of the most prestigious competitions in the country. It provides chefs with the opportunity to push themselves and gain recognition. She saw it as a great way to make new connections with other chefs and industry professionals, as well as a chance to enhance her skills and knowledge.

Her executive head chef, Paul, is definitely the biggest inspiration and support in her career so far. Having won 3 Michelin stars in two different countries, his knowledge of food and flavour is extraordinary. She is also inspired by the head chef, Mark and sous chef, Krys. All the head chefs and chefs in Simon’s restaurants are her inspiration.

Tom Barnes has been a significant influence on her as well. She is also inspired by Jordi Roca’s pastry work and Restaurant Central’s approach to food, foraging, and their exploration of new flavours. Kadeau in Copenhagen and Crocadon by Dan Cox are other highly inspiring restaurants for her.

Using local ingredients

The inspiration for all her dishes were farm to fork and seasonal using foraged and local ingredients. Her starter is agnolotti pasta and for the pasta dough, she has milled her own flour using Gilchesters organic whole grains from Northumberland, along with six egg yolks from ‘Our Farm’. She believes the whole grain pasta dough has a robust flavour, and the use of only egg yolks makes it very rich.

Given the challenge to create pasta, she wanted to put as much effort into her dough as possible, viewing pasta-making as a true test for the starter in this competition. The pasta is filled with fermented asparagus and pickled kale stems from ‘Our Farm’, along with two local cheeses (St. James and Ingot) made in Cartmel.

Although the asparagus is not in season in October, she decided to preserve it by fermenting. The kale stems, a byproduct from their work, were pickled to add texture and acidity to the filling. The sauce will feature fermented asparagus juice from the farm, and she has incorporated one of her favourite Irish cheeses, Killeen, in the pasta sauce coating. Additionally, she plans to use Donegal rapeseed oil in the dish to blend local ingredients from her home in Donegal, Ireland, and her current home in the Lake District.

Her halibut main course

Her main course is inspired by many of the skills she has acquired at work and the ingredients expected to be available on their farm in the coming months. She plans to barbecue the halibut and glaze it with a fennel honey and koji glaze. At Henrock, barbecuing proteins is a common technique, and she wanted to showcase this in her menu. The koji used in her dish is grown on-site at Henrock, and she has incorporated it into both the fish and carrot glaze and the sauce. She fermented the koji in water and used the fermented water in her sauce. Carrots from their farm are used both as a garnish and in a purée. Carrot tops, fennel fronds, and pickled samphire, which she chose for their flavour compatibility with carrots, add further garnish. When planning this dish, she aimed to make the main course intriguing and demonstrate the potential of simple, locally sourced ingredients.

Something different for dessert

Since the brief did not allow for meat in the starter or main, she chose to incorporate it into her dessert. Inspired by a dessert she had at Restaurant Kadeau, which featured kombu with spruce and pork fat caramel, she decided to explore a similar combination of flavours in her dessert. Her dessert features spruce, pork, and apple, flavours typically thought of as savoury, reimagined as a dessert course. She will create a Paris Brest-shaped choux bun topped with craquelin to show off her technique.

The choux will be filled with an apple and spruce purée, with apples being in season in October and the spruce foraged and frozen in spring. She will also make a spruce crème diplomate, a pork skin and praline crumb, and a pork fat caramel. Keira believes the dessert achieves a well-balanced combination of sweet and savoury notes and she is particularly excited for the judges to try it.

What winning would mean

Winning this title would be one of the most significant milestones in her career so far. To have her dishes regarded so highly by the judges would be amazing. It would make her family and friends very proud and happy to see her advancing her skills in the industry, especially after leaving home to further her career. She would truly be speechless, as it would mean so much to her.

Looking ahead

If Keira could work for any chef in the world, it would be Dan Cox as she loves how he built his restaurant by himself from scratch. All of his food is based around his farm and what he can grow or raise on his farm in Cornwall. She thinks his attitude to food and farming is incredible and the food he is producing is so inspirational. It is also amazing how sustainable his restaurant is as she feels the future of hospitality has to become more sustainable.

In ten years, she hopes to have worked in various restaurants to learn different styles of food and cooking. She aims to work her way up to a senior position in a kitchen and participate in more competitions. Ultimately, she would love to open her own restaurant.

Her least favourite kitchen task is vacuum packing items. As they are working to eliminate vacuum packs in order to adopt a greener approach. Having to use them feels like a step backward.