The Irish Restaurant Awards 2017 Chef team is selected based on those who were regional Best Chef category winners in 2016 for Ulster, Connaught, Leinster, Munster and Dublin.

This has been the selection process for the past 9 years of the Irish Restaurant Awards. If a regional winner is unable to partake in the Chef team, a county winner in the Best Chef category of that region is asked to be part of the Chef team.

There were no female winners in some regions and in the region where there was a female winner, unfortunately she had to pull out of the team in the past four weeks.

For the 2016 Award Chef team, our Connaught regional Best Chef Winner for 2015 was Jess Murphy of Kai Restaurant and Jess was on the Chef team. The Ulster Best Chef winner 2015 Danni Barry of Deanes Eipic was also invited to join the team but was unable to do so due to prior commitments.

The same process will stand for the 2018 Awards whereby the 2017 regional Best Chef category winners will be asked to be on the Chef team.

Adrian Cummins

Chief Executive

Restaurants Association of Ireland