Úna is cooking up a storm

AUSTRALIA was where Úna Martin got the idea to start an artisan food business.

But her native Cork was where she launched and developed her unique brand of Úna’s Pies.

Yet the venture might never have taken off were it not for the recession in Ireland.

Úna graduated from University College Cork in 2008 with a master’s degree in urban planning and sustainable development.

But there was little or no work for an urban planner in a country struggling with an economic crisis.

Una got an insight into the food business, however, when she worked for a year as a waitress at Nash 19 restaurant on Prince’s St, Cork.

After saving some money, she spent three months in South America and then headed to Australia on a one-year visa.

It was during the three months she spent in Oz that she saw the opportunity for an artisan pie business at home in Cork.

“I discovered that pies were huge in Australia. It is like their fast food,” she said.

One day in 2010 she told a friend she would love to start a pie shop or something along those lines back in Ireland.

Three days later she booked her flight home with the elements of a game plan formulating in her mind.

She took part in a ‘Start Your Own Business’ course with South Cork Enterprise Board and later that summer moved to Caherdaniel in Kerry, where her family have a holiday home.

Úna worked in a local pub five days a week, bought a few moulds and trays, a table cloth, a few wicker baskets, and with pots and pans from home, started making pies.

Her target was a weekly country market in Caherdaniel, where she took a stall on the first Friday in July. She started selling her pies, which became popular with customers, who kept coming back for more.

That was not surprising because good cooking runs in Úna’s family. Her grandmother, Maura Murray, Ballingeary, Co Cork, was a home economics teacher.

Úna, who hails from Douglas in Cork, said she has been inspired by her granny’s recipe books, handwritten in Irish, and has followed her ethos of wholesome fresh ingredients.

Supported by her parents Michael and Maureen Martin, Úna set about achieving her dream of starting a business on returning to Cork from Kerry.

She got slots at the farmers’ markets in Douglas and Mahon Point, and later in Midleton, and moved from her home kitchen to a unit at Cork Constitution rugby club premises.

She went on a six-month advanced food programme run by South Cork Enterprise Board (SCEB) in conjunction with Bullseye food marketing company.

While this was all happening she entered some of her pies in the 2011 Blás na hÉireann Irish Food Awards.

She won gold, silver, and bronze in her category and was also chosen as artisan producer of the year

Following those awards she received grants from SCEB and Cork County Council, moved into a production unit in Ballincollig and is now supplying between 20 and 40 shops and restaurants.

Úna makes 10 to 15 different pies, depending on the season. The most popular are the award-winning chicken leek and cheese, roasted vegetables and goat’s cheese, and chicken, chorizo, and red peppers.

She continues to have a stall at the farmers’ markets, employs a full-time chef, and also has two part-time sales assistants.

Last October, she again won gold, silver, and bronze at the Bord Blás Awards in Dingle, on what was her 28th birthday. It was the first time a producer had won back-to-back category awards.

She was also presented with the award for the best farmers’ market stall and was chosen for the highest honour of all — Supreme Champion.

The awards are much sought after because they are judged in what is the biggest blind-tasting of produce in Ireland.

Her pies also made it into the 2012 Bridgestone Guide

Over the past six months, Úna, who has two brothers, Michael and Rory, has been working on product development for a launch into the supermarket retail sector.

She is in no doubt, however, that the awards she has won have opened the doors that will lead Úna’ Pies to the next stage in their journey.

“Blás na hÉireann and the title of Supreme Champion 2012 have made it possible for a small producer like myself to think big,” she said.