A Culinary Arts student from SETU will be taking part in the Knorr Professional Student Chef of the Year competition on Thursday.
Second year student, Conor Sheridan, was chosen to represent the university among nine other contestants at the Dundalk Institute of Technology.
The competition is celebrating it's 25th anniversary, with the theme of this year being Classic dishes with a modern make-over.
Each contestant will be tasked with creating two dishes, each with two portions.
Speaking to WLR News, Conor said the theme took him by surprise.
"I was very stumped. It took me a week or two to find out what I wanted to do," he said.
After some contemplation, Conor decided that his starter would be a chicken liver parfait with apple caviar, pickled beetroot, a walnut crumb, and a sesame cracker.
For his main, he will be making rainbow trout with buckwheat, chorizo, pickled carrot, brown butter sauce, tapioca, and a seaweed oil; something he described as "a twist on a fish Meunière."
"I'm pretty confident in my dishes. I feel like I have what it takes to win," Conor said.
Impressing expert judges with cooking creativity and skills is not something every Culinary Arts student gets to do.
But for Conor, it's one step in the right direction of reaching his goal of having his own restaurant.
He is currently working at Everett's in the City, but said winning would reassure him of his abilities.
"I would honestly rather win just to have a boost in my confidence with cooking so if I won, I'd know I'm doing something right with this kind of stuff," he said.
He added that he would go on to compete in other competitions and see how far he could go with that.
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