HIGH QUALITY meats and premium cheeses, including mountain lamb from Kerry and Wicklow blue cheese, swept the boards at the 14th annual Irish Food Writers' Guild food awards announced yesterday.
Elsewhere, there was recognition for the work of the Associated Craft Butchers of Ireland in maintaining traditional butchery skills in Ireland.
However, unlike last year, when smoked silver eel and high-quality honey featured among the award winners, all of this year's five awards were for either meat or cheese production.
Nominations for the awards, which aim to reward excellence among Irish food producers, are only revealed to the winners once the final vote of the Guild's 29 members has taken place.
Accolades of excellence were presented by Minister of State for Food and Horticulture Trevor Sargent at the event in L'Ecrivain restaurant in Dublin yesterday.
The winners included Patrick Moran for breeding and rearing traditional Scottish black-faced lamb on the mountain slopes of Maughernane, Waterville, Co Kerry and Superquinn for the flavour and tenderness of their superior quality SQ Irish rib eye dry-aged Hereford beef.
The Hempenstall family of Wicklow Farmhouse cheeses also received an award for their "handcrafted and excellent" Wicklow Blue Cheese which they make at Curranstown in south Wicklow.
Kilkenny-based Olivia Goodwillie received an award for the "flavour, texture and consistent quality" of Lavistown, a "unique" Irish farmhouse cheese.
The Associated Craft Butchers of Ireland were similarly recognised for their "sustained work in ensuring the survival and development of craft butchers and small-scale abattoirs, and for the maintaining of traditional manufacturing butchery skills in Ireland."
Maírín Uí Chomáin, chairwoman of the Irish Food Writers' Guild, said there are no set categories for the awards, which are about "true excellence."
"I think the award winners are unsung heroes," she told The Irish Times. "They are down there working away and haven't noticed anyone sampling their products, and then they get a notice about this. I think it's wonderful." John Hempenstall established Wicklow Farmhouse Cheese in 2004 along with his wife Bernie, and has a herd of 70 Friesian cows.