The Menu: A rare award that has the greater good of the Irish food world as its concern

Some commercial judges would struggle to judge a crisp-opening competition

At the Euro-Toques Ireland Food Awards were, from left Mark Wright, Ballylisk - The Triple Rose Cheese; Sharon & Gordon Greene, Wild Irish Foragers; Catherine Kinsella, Salt Rock Dairy; Fergal Smith, Moy Hill Farm; Sarah Richards, Seagull Bakery; Tom Leach and Moe McKeown, Dingle Sea Salt and Mark Durnin & Helen McManus, Coole Farm.

Two weeks ago, at a special lunch in Ashford Castle, Euro-Toques Ireland unveiled the winners of their annual food producer awards for 2025. Sweet suffering kidneys of Christ, says you, not more awards.

With each passing year, it seems more crop up, right across the commercial world. Very often it is about self-promotion, to generate buzz and publicity for members of a particular commercial sector, to gain a bit of traction with the public and then dub them the ‘Oscars of the Tricycle Importers of West Longford’ or whatever product or service you’re trying to flog.

Increasingly, especially in the food world, awards are being created purely for the financial gain of the organisers, whose knowledge of the sector can prove surprisingly scant. Some years ago, when I used to work with small food producers, a client rang to ask about a new ‘Irish food award’ run by a foreign commercial entity for which they had been invited to enter. Further investigation revealed that, on top of the entry fee, there were further charges for displaying product at the awards, potentially running into thousands. Then there was the cost of attending the awards themselves. The price of a table for, say, 10 (you and all the staff of your small speciality food production business, perhaps) would again cost several thousand. It is a model used across multiple sectors, an opportunity to cash in with a lavish event, milking it for every last dime.

Coincidentally, I had been invited to be a judge for these awards. Sniffing the reek of commercial opportunism, I asked how much I would be paid to compensate for my time. Nada… but it would allow me to promote my own ‘brand’. Travel expenses? Nope. I regularly donate my time gratis to voluntary causes or organisations and will do so in future but I baulk at giving free time to a commercial entity primarily focused on profit. I advised said client to say no and I did likewise, subsequently noting the professional calibre of certain judges was such that they’d struggle to judge a crisp-opening competition.

The Euro-Toques Ireland awards are markedly different in both structure and ambition. For starters, Euro-Toques Ireland is the Irish chapter of a European-wide, chef-led organisation dedicated to preserving and championing local food culture, traditional food craft and gastronomy, and chef-members not only pay an annual membership fee (€150) but also devote time on a voluntary basis. Food producers can also become members for free.

Secondly, nominees don’t ‘enter’ the awards or pay an entry fee; they are selected and passed through the judging process by the chef-members, only learning of their nomination once the dye has been cast.

The cost of the awards lunch (members €65; non-members €80) is to cover expenses (the chef-member venue is donated free), no more, even though Euro-Toques Ireland has a skeleton professional staff, one part timer and head of community Manuela Spinella (familiar to Irish football fans as translator to erstwhile Irish football manager Giovanni Trapattoni), the only full-time employee, and membership fees and sponsorship are its sole source of income. Each nominee gets one free ticket for a gorgeous lunch with wine and can buy more at member’s rate. Safe to say, Euro-Toques Ireland is an entirely ethos-driven organisation with the greater good of the Irish food world its sole concern.

Euro-Toques Ireland came about in 1986 when Myrtle Allen was approached by three-star Michelin chefs Paul Bocuse (France) and Pierre Romeijer (Belgium) to form a European-wide chefs organisation on foot of growing alarm at the loss of traditional food cultures and professional cheffing practices as a result of the increasing industrialisation of agriculture and the food sector.

Myrtle best represented the true values and aspirations of the organisation, once famously scolding her fellow Michelin-starred members for serving up coffee with UHT milk instead of proper milk. Her life’s work at Ballymaloe was the essence of the Euro-Toques ethos in action, brilliantly cooked seasonal menus based on traditional produce of the local terroir. Enjoy a well-cooked meal of this year’s Euro-Toques award-winning produce and I promise it will be a culinary highlight of your year.

If you want it to be more than an annual highlight, check out Euro-Toques online and start engaging more with the cooking and produce of chef- and producer-members.

Host kitchens sought

Chef Network is seeking Irish restaurants and other hospitality ventures to follow in the footsteps of Glover’s Alley, Aniar, Rare at Blue Haven, and many more by registering as a host kitchen for Open Kitchen Week (Nov 10-16).

The initiative, in its third year, offers aspiring chefs of all ages and backgrounds hands-on experience in a professional Irish kitchen, from TY students to mature learners as well as career influencers such as parents and teachers.

Host kitchens, in turn, get to showcase the culinary sector, attract new blood and help to sustain the sector’s future.

openkitchen.ie

TODAY’S SPECIAL

If new season strawberries, which I wrote about last week, are an annual edible highlight, they are nothing compared to the first new potatoes of the season.

A bowl of steaming hot new spuds, chopped parsley, a grind of black pepper and drowning in enough melting butter to fund a cardiologist’s yacht, is my favourite dish, death row meal and last supper all rolled into one. I always purchase my first of the year from fine independent grocery/food shop, Menloe Stores, of Blackrock, who source directly from growers but new spuds should be on shelves all over the country by the time you read this.