Over 50 awards for Cork producers as foodmakers blossom at Blas awards
“All food on this island is local, but the passion for food, good food and local food, has never been greater.”
That was the verdict of Artie Clifford, chairman and founder of Blas na hÉireann as he brought the curtin down on another successful festival of food in Dingle and the much-prized Blas food awards.
Thankfully the clouds parted on Saturday, allowing sunshine to beam down on the thousands of punters, producers, and buyers from national and international retail outlets who poured into the town for the weekend, grazing their way through the streets at any of the 78 pop-up Taste Trail dining stations set up for the festival in pubs, shops, boutiques, galleries, and even curbside, and shopping at food market stalls.
Gauging crowd numbers can be a tricky process but Jim McCarthy, proprietor of the Chart House restaurant, provides a fair indication using their Saturday Taste Trail sales to back up his own sense of a massive increase on last year.
Last year, we sold 500 Taste Trail dishes and this year we ran out at 620 and could have sold up to a thousand,” he said. “You can only do so much for such an amount of people and the feedback has been really extraordinary.
Sean Murphy, of the renowned Murphy’s Ice Cream in the town, said the festival has gone from strength to strength.
“The festival has settled in really nicely over the years,” he said. “Festivals can go stale but the Dingle Food Festival has managed to stay fun and vibrant and also runs really smoothly and, like an awful lot of people in the town, it remains one of my favourite days/weekends of the year.”
The festival runs in tandem with the Blas na hÉireann awards, the country’s largest and most popular food awards.
This year, it received more than 2,500 entries from 32 counties, with 350 producers entering in 141 categories which resulted in 100-plus judges from the Irish food world tasting more than 4,000 samples in the days leading up to Saturday’s prize-giving ceremonies, with winners attracting national and international attention each year.
Cork producers dominated the awards, with 53 winners from a total of 99 in Munster coming from the Rebel County.
Among the gold winners were Stonewell Cider, Kinsale Mead, West Cork distillers Folláin (whose substantial haul included gold for its on-trend Kimchi Ketchup), Sheaghanore Duck, On the Pig’s Back, Serendipity Café, Gloun Cross Dairy, Happy Days Ice Cream, West Cork Eggs, Kish’s Kitchen, Keohane’s Kitchen, and Gubbeen Cheese.
One popular winner, Johnny Lynch of Macroom Buffalo — regularly recognised around town as the ‘man who rides the buffalo on the TV’ in a popular ad — was delighted to see both dairy and meat products derived from his livestock pick up awards and was relishing his festival experience.
“It’s a great weekend, the crowds, the weather, the chance to see all these fine new products and there are great networking opportunities galore,” he said.
Belfast-based Refuge Hot Chocolate was awarded the best artisan producer for its thick liquid chocolate, using Fair Trade chocolate produced in an eco-friendly manner, resulting in a luxury product to be consumed either hot or cold.
“To get the Blas na hÉireann stamp of approval is an incredible endorsement,” said Tara Mullan, founder of Refuge Hot Chocolate.
The amazing work that Blas na hÉireann do to promote Irish produce can be life changing for smaller producers. It means so much to win this award and bring a whole new level of exposure to Refuge Hot Chocolate and our aim to raise awareness of important issues such as trafficking and fair trade.
Rooney Fish, based in Kilkeel, Co Down, received the treasured Supreme Champion accolade for its Millbay Oysters, Pacific oysters reared on its nearby oyster farm in Carlingford Lough.
MD John Rooney was understandably delighted. “We are absolutely thrilled to win Supreme Champion at Blas na hÉireann 2018 for our Millbay Oysters. Although we’ve grown considerably since we began we’re still a family business and to be recognised with this award from Blas na hÉireann, who themselves believe so strongly in community and family, is a huge honour”
Saturday night yielded the mother of all celebratory parties with award-winners, many clutching precious trophies, packing out the town’s various restaurants and hostelries. And while the devil himself may have slept in on Sunday morning, colder, overcast, and blustery, compared to the previous day’s clement climate, the crowds still poured into the town for the final day of yet another very successful Dingle Food Festival.
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