Bord Bia invites 70 chefs to three-day Gourmet Gathering

Bord Bia is hosting 70 senior chefs from 13 countries for a three-day “Gourmet Gathering” aimed at promoting Irish beef. They have been visiting farms and meat producers involved in the Quality Assurance Scheme and Sustainability Programme, as well as playing golf at Killeen Castle, eating at some of the capital’s top restaurants – Locks Brasserie, Chapter One and L’Ecrivain – and staying at the Four Seasons hotel in Ballsbridge. Tonight the group meet with Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney, and tomorrow President Michael D. Higgins will host a reception for them at Aras an Uachtaráin. The visit concludes tomorrow with lunch at the Guinness Store House. Ireland’s beef exports, to more than 45 countries, were valued at €1.9 billion in 2012.