Homegrown talent

AWARD WINNERS:The cream of Irish food producers were singled out for recognition by
the Irish Food Writers' Guild

BEETROOT, VENISON, BACON AND OATS – it was a very mixed bag of ingredients that was presented to chef/proprietor Derry Clarke for him to compose the awards lunch at L’Ecrivain restaurant on Monday, honouring the winners of the Irish Food Writers’ Guild’s annual awards. Janet’s Country Fayre Beetroot Blush, Coopershill House Irish venison and O’Neill Foods’ dry-cured bacon were singled out for their excellence, while Flahavan’s was honoured for its environmental awareness, and Derek O’Brien, head of the Baking department at the Dublin Institute of Technology, received the lifetime achievement award.

Janet Drew, a former art historian at the National Gallery, makes her Country Fayre range of chutneys, relishes and sauces in Kilcoole, Co Wicklow. Lindy and Brian O’Hara have been rearing fallow deer at Coopershill House in Co Sligo since 1995. Pat O’Neill’s hand-crafted dry-cured bacon and hams are favoured by chefs, including Eugene O’Callaghan at Kelly’s of Rosslare, and sold by specialist food shops, butchers and at farmers’ markets in Gorey and Enniscorthy.

Addressing the gathering, Darina Allen spoke of the need to keep Ireland GM-free if our reputation as a centre of excellent in food production is to be maintained. “GMOs [genetically-modified organisms] should have no part in our food future,” she said. Orla Broderick, chairperson of the Guild, made a plea for retailers to make space on shelves for locally produced foods, and for shoppers to seek them out and buy them.

The awards lunch menu featured a starter of whiskey-cured salmon with citrus mayonnaise and Beetroot Blush, and also featured O’Neill’s dry-cured bacon in a salad with figs and apple and honey dressing. Coopershill venison, served in a variety of ways, was the main course, followed by Flahavan’s mille feuille flapjacks with lemon cream.