ENNISTYMON mum, Brianna Turner is enjoying the ‘sweet’ taste of success having been chosen a top winner in the recent nationwide search by banana importer Fyffes to find a new mouth-watering dessert that has a banana as its key ingredient.
Responding to the invitation fronted by celebrity cook, Donal Skehan, Brianna was amongst a large group of what the popular television presenter called ‘creative and inventive meal-makers’ who accepted his challenge to design a desert that could become a meal-topping choice on tables around Ireland and abroad.
A graduate of Ballymaloe Cookery School, Brianna has had a passion for food and cooking from a young age when she used to make scones and apple tarts with her grandmother Pauline. Over the years she has honed her skills working as a chef in the Michelin Star Bluehill Restaurant in Manhattan and more recently in Chez Panisse, California. Brianna is now a full-time mum to 15-month old son Alo, while her partner Kane works with Wild Atlantic Seaweed Baths.
In creating her prize-winning entry, which she names ‘Bananarama Foster Cake’ and which won the ‘Best Gluten-Free’ category, Brianna drew inspiration from a 1950’s New Orleans recipe which involves a flambé with rum.
Devised by Fyffes to mark the annual National Banana Day held recently, the invitation to ‘design a dessert’ was in-line with a similar event which took place last year when the challenge was to capture the national lockdown-relieving popularity of home cooking by asking Ireland’s bake-at-home families to come forward with new and innovative recipes for banana bread.
Complementing what he called ‘the exceptional level of skill’ revealed by all who took part in the Competition, Donal Skehan said, “the success that Brianna has achieved reflects the dedication and devotion she puts into her baking and the obvious enjoyment she gets from it “.
Details of each category winner and their winning recipes can be viewed on www.facebook.com/FyffesIreland/
A native of Ennis, Colin McGann has been editor of The Clare Champion since August 2020. Former editor of The Clare People, he is a journalism and communications graduate of Dublin Institute of Technology.