Every trade tends to have its own awards for excellence, which for the most part, are only of interest to those competing. However, there's something slightly mysterious and intriguing about chef awards, particularly if the chefs in question are working against the clock and are the best in the country. The Wedgewood Chef and Potter competition, which took place in the K Club in Straffan, Co Kildare last Monday, has exactly the right air of intrigue and rivalry - and this year there was also a chance for the country's best wine waiters to get in on the act. Waterford Crystal sponsored a competition to pluck out the best sommeliers in the country.
After the results were all in - Dromoland Castle, the K Club, and Roscoffs in Belfast were among those mentioned - there was a black-tie dinner where the nation's foodies were able to relax and enjoy the delicious offerings of the K Club's executive chef, the exuberant Michel Flamme. It would seem that the food world is one of the biggest cross-Border co-operatives we have running at the moment - there were 12 Northern chefs involved in the competition this year, unlike three years ago when organiser Peter Williams could not summon up a single Northerner.
It was a good cross-Border moment, too, when fellow chefs Kevin Thornton and Michael Deane were introduced to each other for the first time by Trevor White of Food and Wine Magazine. Kevin is the man behind Thorntons restaurant in Dublin's Portobello, which has held on to their Michelin star, and according to Kevin, are dead-set on gaining a second. Meanwhile, Michael is the head honcho at Deane's Brasserie, the similarly-starred Belfast restaurant. Both were accompanied by their wives - Muriel Thornton who set up the restaurant with Kevin, and Kate Smith who is a presenter on UTV. Publisher Kevin Kelly was the second Kevin at Thornton's table. Other food industry people included Michael Governey, managing director of the Conrad Hotel, and his former employee and now rival in the plush hotel trade, Peter McCann, manager of the Merrion Hotel. At the top table were Brian Patterson, chief executive of Wedgewood; Bill Gunn of Pol Roger, the champagne house; Red- mond O'Donoghue, chief executive of Waterford Crystal who donated a new, uncut crystal range for the dinner tables, and Richard Shepherd, who has opened many of London's successful restaurants, including Langan's Brasserie with the late Peter Langan and actor Michael Caine.