Stephen Brennan is on his way to LA with Donal Skehan

Video creator Stephen Brennan has won a competition celebrating European cheese as part of the European Milk Forum and National Dairy Council’s “Cheese. Your Way.” campaign. The competition prize will send Stephen and his friend Kirsty to LA to meet and participate in a food styling workshop with campaign ambassador, Irish celebrity chef Donal Skehan.

“Cheese. Your Way.” is a pan-European campaign, which is supported locally by Skehan and the National Dairy Council and is being implemented to educate Irish consumers on the importance of including cheese in their everyday diets in a variety of traditional and contemporary ways.

Currently working as a Research and Development Consultant, 27-year-old Stephen also runs his own YouTube and Instagram accounts named ‘CookingWithStephen’, dedicated to his love of creating delicious, home-cooked sweet and savoury dishes. Talking about the inspiration around his cooking channels Stephen said, “My YouTube channel started when my flatmates left chips in the oven for 4 hours. I awoke to the smell of the charred fries and thought it would be fun to make a ‘spoof’ instructional cooking video for ‘Charcoal French Fries’. Making and editing the video was a great experience so I decided to keep it up with proper dishes.”

Stephen continued, “I’m really looking forward to going to LA and meeting Donal for the food styling workshop. I’m sure it will be an eye-opening experience and I hope to learn a few of Donal’s great culinary tricks!”

In addition to meeting one of Ireland’s most well-known chefs, Brennan will also get the opportunity to cook a European cheese-inspired recipe and improve his food styling and videography skills straight out of Skehan’s home kitchen, which just happens to be in the stunning LA hills.

Speaking about the competition, Donal Skehan said, “Congratulations to Stephen, his entry video was very creative and humorous, whilst still giving a great insight into why he loves cooking with European cheese. I’m really looking forward to having Stephen and Kirsty come out to LA this autumn to style a delicious European cheese dish with me in my kitchen!”

Cathy Curran, Communications Manager at the National Dairy Council, added “Donal is an inspirational figure to aspiring chefs of all ages within Ireland and throughout the world, so we are delighted to have him on board as our campaign ambassador and look forward to sending Stephen to LA to learn new food styling tips.”

Dairy is an extremely important factor in contributing to a healthy balanced diet and we are looking forward to continue our work with Donal over the coming months, to encourage more consumers to explore and consume the great European cheeses we have access to here in Ireland.”

Winner: Stephen Brennan