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Gifted Belfast chef Niall McKenna has just won a place in the final of the Great British Menu. He talks to Judith Cole about his on-screen rivalry with his fellow cooks, his passion for Ulster food and reveals why his wife is the driving force behind his thriving restaurant business
NIALL
MY RECIPE FOR
SWEET SUCCESS
It is the practical joking and banter among the chefs, the stolen glances at what the others are up to in the kitchen and the fierce competition that makes Great British Menu so watchable -- as well, of course, as the amazing food and sheer artistry of the chefs. And this week's contest, with three Belfast men battling it out in the Northern Ireland heat, has been even more sizzling than the other UK heats.
The BBC Two programme -- in which each regional winner goes on to compete against each other to win the chance to create a dish for a banquet of 100 guests, including Prince Charles -- this year tasked the chefs with sourcing new food suppliers in and around a National Trust property to create a four-course menu.
Battling it out for Northern Ireland were Niall McKenna of James Street South restaurant, Brian McCann of Shu on Belfast's Lisburn Road, and Derek Creagh who formerly worked at Deanes.
And after much blood, sweat and tears, Niall was crowned the winner yesterday with his menu of roast quail with asparagus and quails' egg dressing to start, a fish course of lobster and scallop with seaweed butter, a main of fillet of beef on the bone with ox tongue and bone marrow and, to finish, lavender ice cream with strawberry and rhubarb jelly and yellow man.
Niall (39) had been on television before, filming with the Hairy Bikers when they visited Northern Ireland, but Great British Menu was an altogether different experience.
"I've been asked to do the show for the last few years and for one reason or another I haven't been able to -- my wife, Joanne, was pregnant one year and I just couldn't do it," he explains. "This year, with the recession, I thought I had to take every opportunity going and we started filming last September."
Niall, who worked with Marco...