Young Laois woman is one of Ireland's best

A young Laois woman has been ranked as one of the top two young waiters in Ireland.

Aoife Brennan from Ballyfin has come second in the All Ireland Young Waiter & Young Chef of the Year which was held on Tuesday, September 19 in Belfast. 

Aoife has been working part-time at Ballyfin Demesne since 2021 whilst still in secondary school. 

Peter White, General Manager, paid tribute to his rising star who works at the plush Laois hotel which has had guests like George Clooney.

"Aoife is a local young lady who has lived her life in Ballyfin.  She has shown great skill and dedication working part-time whilst still studying," he said.

Ballyfin Demesne had two staff shortlisted, and Aoife was successful in reaching the live final.  The winner will go on to Monaco in November to represent Ireland in the World finals.

The live final was held at Titanic Belfast where a host of professional young waiters and chefs from Northern Ireland the Republic of Ireland took part in a comprehensive judging day with a number of culinary challenges in the kitchen of Titanic Belfast and serving challenges in the Titanic Suite under the watchful eyes of an expert panel of judges.

Those vying to be crowned Young Chef were given 3.5 hours to create a three-course meal whilst the Young Waiter candidates had to select pairing wines for each course and undertake a number of challenging scenario-based situations before taking part in an interview with the judges.

Online judges included Chef Richard Corrigan.

"This competition celebrates excellence and promotes culinary arts and hospitality as a career of choice. The judges were very impressed at the extremely high calibre of talent of all of our finalists and each one of them should be very proud of themselves. I look forward to following the careers of our winners, and indeed our fantastic group of finalists, in the years ahead as I am confident they will all have very bright futures," he said.

Call to support rural Laois pubs

The other online judge was chef-proprietor Anna Haugh of Myrtle London, while at the live final Group Executive Chef at Harcourt Developments Gordon Smyth, Noel McMeel of Ebrington Hotel, Mike Tweedie of Adare Manor and Adrian McNally, Titanic Hotel Belfast were joined by alongside other well-known advocates for new talent.