Pub Chef of the Year Award for Larne Chef

29 January 2018

On Friday evening Sammy Wilson MP for East Antrim and Colin Neill Chief Executive of Hospitality Ulster presented an award to chef Terry Dalrymple at Billy Andy’s pub outside Larne. Terry was awarded the number one pub chef award in N.I. and narrowly missed being placed in the top eight across the UK as a whole.

Sammy Wilson said:

"The award is given by the All Party Parliamentary beer group at Westminster. The aim of the award is to recognise that pubs play as important a part as restaurants in providing top quality food and in doing so contribute to the hospitality sector of the economy as well as playing an important role in the expanding N.I. tourist industry.

It is important to recognise the skills which reside in the kitchens of hundreds of local pubs and to encourage young people to take up the hundreds of job opportunities which will emerge over the next number of years" 

Colin Neill said that Hospitality Ulster was working hard to highlight the fantastic quality of food in many of our local pubs as well as raising the status and highlighting the skills of the chefs who provided those meals.

"This is one of the fastest growing sectors in our economy and it is estimated that over the next six years 30000 jobs will be created in the hospitality industry and there will be vacancies for 2000 chefs. Awards such as this help to give recognition to those who carry out these skilled jobs.

We are really pleased that Terry has done so well.  He has been a chef for over 25 years, starting in Carriages in Larne, moving to the Highways before becoming head chef in Billy Andy’s.  This is the first time that he has been entered for the competition and is recognition for the excellent work which he does personally and not only his kitchen skills but the management of a large team of kitchen staff and trainee chefs.

He is proud that he is self-taught and enjoys training young people in the trade believing that the best training occurs on the job in the kitchen. The pub prepares hundreds of top quality meals every week using local ingredients, much of the meat coming from animals which graze the fields which surround this pub in the middle of the countryside.

The menus and the presentation of the food would not be out of place in some of the best Belfast and London restaurants without the price tag of such establishments. Terry commented that he and the staff continually experimented with new combinations for mouth-watering menus but that presentation of the food was equally important since people “eat with their eyes"

We wish Terry and his trainees all the best and look forward to even greater success and a place in the UK wide final next year.’’