The menu: Irish Food Writers’ Guild’s annual awards
Six winners were announced along with the Guild’s first posthumous award, honouring the late, great Oliver Hughes, one of the original pioneers of the Irish craft beer revolution and founder of the Porterhouse in Dublin and Dingle Distillery.
The 2017 food award winners are The Friendly Farmer (Ronan Byrne, of Galway) for his pasture-reared chickens, Cork’s Ummera Irish Smokehouse (Anthony Cresswell) for Ummera Smoked Silver Hill Duck Breast and, an especial Menu fave, Cuinneog, for Irish Farmhouse Country Butter and Natural Buttermilk.
Another splendid Cork product, Bertha’s Revenge Irish Milk Gin, received this year’s Irish Drink Award and Mag Kirwan of Goatsbridge Trout Farm was presented with a Special Contribution to Irish Food Award.
The 2017 IFWG Environmental Award went to The Little Milk Company for its innovative approach to fostering sustainable family farms, a very worthy winner; mind you, The Menu reckons Ronan Byrne could equally fall well into this category for his establishment of an on-site abattoir on his own farm, hopefully the beginning of a rowing back against the tide of decades utterly misguided State policy that has seen the closure of small abattoirs around the country.
The Menu is delighted to support what should be one of the very great nights of this year’s Irish culinary calendar, Cooking for Cancer (April 3), a charity banquet featuring five of the country’s very finest chefs cooking up a charity banquet at beautiful Ballyvolane House in aid of Breakthrough Cancer Research.
Organised by the very fine chef, Robbie Krawczyk, son of legendary West Cork charcutier, Frank, Robbie will be joined in the kitchen by Paul Flynn (The Tannery, Dungarvan), Enda McEvoy (Loam, Galway), Takashi Miyazaki (Miyazaki, Cork) and Jess Murphy (Kai, Galway) with front-of-house overseen by award-winning restaurant manager Declan Maxwell. Some very generous raffle prizes to be snaffled as well.
www.breakthroughcancerresearch.ie/shop/cookingforcancer
As the SoccerMom back in Menu Towers, The Menu will at least attempt to scarf a share of the bounty heading Mrs Menu’s way on Mother’s Day (March 26) but fears his efforts will come to nought for she is a hound for the fine cheese and chocs.
He may instead opt for a Mother’s Day cooking course (March 25) followed by dinner at the wonderful Good Things Café & Restaurant, recently re-opened for the new season.
www.goodthingscafe.com
TODAY’S SPECIAL
Some years ago, The Menu finagled a taste of some very wonderful Shepherd’s Store, a sheep’s milk ‘Gouda’ from Sarah Grubb of Cashel Blue, and though determined to make it a regular addition to his ongoing cheeseboard struggled to find further supplies until a recent trip to On the Pig’s Back yielded fresh bounty.
Made for Sarah by Marion Roeleveld, one of the nation’s finest cheesemakers and a veritable alchemist when working with sheep’s milk, this nine-month-old version is sailing into the Gouda equivalent of ‘adolescence’, still young enough to retain a buttery, creamy softness yet beginning to develop the salty-sweet caramel that will come with full maturity making for a most adaptable cheese: the progeny scarfing it down au naturale or grilled on sourdough; The Menu enjoying it on Pig’s Back cheese crackers with a delicious white Burgundy.
www.cashelblue.com
