Irish Cookbook of the Year Awards

Rachel has just launched her newest cookbook ‘Soup, Broth, Bread’ published by Michael Joseph Penguin – it’s a gorgeous collection of 120 delicious recipes.

‘A bowl of soup can do so many things.  A cosy, comforting meal on a cold, dark winter’s day.  A gentle broth to heal and soothe.  A fresh, vibrant celebration of spring produce, or a simple and nourishing way to use up leftovers.  For feeding many mouths, for lunch in a hurry, for a dinner-party starter, or for filling the freezer: no matter your need, there’s soup to solve it’.

‘Rachel also shares an array of wonderful homemade breads to serve alongside, as well as easy and delicious garnishes, drizzles, salsas, croutons and crumbs to add the perfect finishing touch’.

I love the photos too and guess what, I’ve voted for it in the An Post Irish Cookbook of the Year Awards and deservedly so!

My own latest book ‘How To Cook’ has been shortlisted for the An Post Irish Book Awards 2021!

Vote for your favourite book and be in with a chance of winning €100 of National Book Tokens.

How to vote:
Go to www.irishbookawards.ie/vote
Enter your name and email
Tap on your book of choice

Irish Food Writers Guild Awards

How fortunate are we here in Ireland to have such an abundance of artisan products and more emerging virtually every week. This sector is incredibly creative and has helped to enhance the diversity and image of Irish food hugely, both at home and abroad. 

Declan Ryan of Arbutus Bread, Cork

Visitors to Ireland are thrilled to taste the farm house cheese, charcuterie, preserves, pickles, ferments, smoked fish and increasing real bread from the growing number of artisan bakeries who are making real natural sourdough bread free of the almost twenty additives, enzymes, improvers and processing aids, which can be legally included without being on the label.  No wonder so many people are finding they have a gluten intolerance.

In their 25 years, several awards recognise the efforts and creativity of this sector, Eurotoque, Dingle and The Food Writers Guild…

The latter awards were held recently at Glovers Alley restaurant in the Fitzwilliam Hotel, Dublin. The selection process is meticulously conducted. Nominations are in confidence, received from Guild members, shortlisted, tasted and chosen individually to a carefully agreed list of criteria. An Irish Food Writers Guild award is much coveted by the recipients.

Image: Paul Sherwood

This year three of the eight biggest awards went to Cork – just saying! 

One of the awards went to Hegarty’s Cheese for their new Teampall Gael cheese. The Hegarty family are fifth generation dairy farmers in Whitechurch in North Cork. To add value to the milk of their large Friesian herd, they experimented first with yogurt and cheese and eventually launched a traditional cloth bound truckle of Cheddar in 2001.  

Image: Paul Sherman

Jean-Baptiste Enjelvin from Bordeaux in France joined them in 2015 and a Comté style cheese, Teampall Gael is the result of this collaboration. This sweet, delicate, nutty, alpine style cheese is made only from the raw milk of pasture fed cows (no silage). The huge 40kg wheels are matured for at least nine months - a really exciting addition to the Irish farmhouse cheese family. 

Image: The Courtyard Dairy

Mike Thompson’s beautiful Young Buck Cheese from Co. Down also won an award. This raw milk, Stilton type blue cheese, comes from a single herd and was the first artisan cheese to be made in Northern Ireland.

The Irish Drink Award also went to Cork’s Killahora Orchards

near Carrigtwohill for their Rare Apple Ice Wine. A really exciting ice wine, delicious to serve with desserts or made into a granita. Andy McFadden and his team at Glovers Alley served it with a sheep’s yoghurt mousse, honey and lime.

Image: Paul Sherwood

David Watson and Barry Walsh of Killhora Orchards grow over 130 varieties of apple used to make craft cider, and 40 pear varieties to make perry. Look out for their apple port also... It tastes like the best white port, delicious to sip on its own or with a good tonic water.

Image: Paul Sherwood

The Community Food Award went to Cork Penny Dinners which was founded during the famine in the 1840s. This much-loved Cork charity provides up to 2000 nourishing hot meals every day of the year in a safe and nurturing environment for all those in need. 

Catherine Twomey and her team also run five classes a week, the Cork Music Dojo, High Hopes homeless choir, the Food for Thought mental health initiative for students, mindfulness classes and French classes. They are about to expand their facilities to include other educational opportunities, plus a clinic run by GP’s who donate their expertise for one day a year. A third accolade for Cork and a hugely deserving winner of the Community Food Award. If you would like to donate your time or money go to their website.

Image: 3fe

The Outstanding Organisation Award went to 3fe Coffee in Dublin. What most impressed the Irish Food Writers Guild about 3fe is not only the fact that the 3fe brand has become synonymous with the best quality coffee in Ireland, but also the company’s commitment to sustainability in the areas of waste and energy use, purchasing principles, staff welfare and community. Colin Harmon and his team have recently opened an all-day restaurant, Gertrude to add to their cafes, add it to your Dublin list...

Image: Paul Sherman

The Environmental Award went to Charlie and Becky Cole of Broughgammon Farm in Ballycastle, Co Antrim. The Irish Food Writers Guild recognises them for their exceptional commitment to the environment and for rescuing male kid goats who would normally have been put down at birth. 

Image: Broughgammon Farm

They now rear free range rose veal and seasonal wild game as well and make an exceptionally good rose veal salami. There’s also an eco-farmhouse, on-site butchery facility and farm shop that use solar thermal heating, low-flow appliances and photovoltaic solar panels.

The inspirational Workman family of Dunany Flour in Co. Louth have been growing heirloom wheat varieties and milling their own organic flour for four generations. Recently they recognised a gap in the market for spelt, a challenging crop to grow and harvest but nutrient dense and low in gluten, high in fibre and B vitamins and rich in essential fatty acids and amino acids. Dunany organic spelt grains are my new best find and we enjoyed a stunning spelt risotto made from it for lunch at Glovers Alley. I can’t wait to experiment more.

Last but certainly not least the Lifetime Achievement Award went to Peter Hannan of Hannan Meats, near Moira in Co. Down, in recognition of his continued work as one of Ireland’s most dedicated food champions. 

Peter has dedicated his life to producing superb quality beef and is 50% stakeholder in the renowned Glenarm Southern Beef Scheme. Hannon Meats are dry aged in four Himalayan salt chambers for an average of 35-45 days but they provide an extra aged product for special clients who want 80-100 days. Peter was a worthy recipient of this award, one of numerous awards he has deservedly won over the years.

The Inaugural World Restaurant Awards

The original idea was simple: try to do something different, something that celebrates the restaurant world in a new, more relevant and entertaining way…  Awards from the ground up but it took a whole decade to become a reality. These ground breaking awards celebrate the excellence, integrity and rich culture of the restaurant world.

So with much pomp and ceremony, the inaugural World Restaurant Awards were held at the Palais Brongniart in Paris on 18^th February 2019. - 10 countries and 4 continents were represented. A glitzy, super chic event that celebrated not just the chefs that work their magic with foams, gels, skid marks on plates and liquid nitrogen, instead these awards celebrated many other aspects of the restaurant experience.

Over 100 judges from 37 countries made up a cosmopolitan, multicultural, globetrotting, gender balanced, panel of experts … chefs, restaurateurs, influential figures in old and new media, film makers, book publishers, food scientists, activists, campaigners. They chose from 18 different categories including …

No reservations required – for places where it is possible to turn up without a booking. This award went to Mocoto,  Sao Paulo Brazil.

House special , restaurants defined by one particular dish was won by Lido 84 on the edge of Lake Garda in Italy for their simple but iconic pasta dish, Cacio e Pepe en Vessie (cooked in a pigs bladder).

Multi-starred Alain Ducasse won the Tattoo-free chef of the Year.

The Tweezer-free kitchen went to Bo.Lan in Bangkok.

The Pop Up Event of the Year was awarded to the Refugee Food Festivals.

New arrival of the Year went to Inua in Tokyo.

Ethical Thinking, rewarding environmental and social responsibility to Refettorio – various locations. Food for Soul, an Italian not-for-profit organisation that addresses food waste, loneliness, and social isolation through community meals. 

Instagram Account of the Year was won by another 3 star Michelin chef, Alain Passard of Arpege in Paris.

Off map destination was won by Wolfgart, a 20 seat restaurant in a 130 year old white washed fisherman’s cottage on the edge of the ocean in Paternoster on the Western Cape.

Wolfgart also won Restaurant of the Year. Chef owner Kobus Van der Merve said ‘by keeping it small, we keep it sustainable’.

Red-Wine serving Restaurant - for those who shun current fashion by championing the red grape. This category was won by a cult London wine bar called Noble Rot.

Ireland was nominated in two categories and won both…

Collaboration of the Year went to Cork’s own Denis Cotter of Café Paradiso and farmer Ultan Walsh from Gortnanain Farm in Nohoval who has been growing beautiful produce for Café Paradiso for over 18 years. Denis accepted his award in beautiful, fluent Gaelic.

Much to our excitement, The Trolley of the Year Award went to Ballymaloe House. JR Ryle, who is the passionate young pastry chef and I proudly accepted the award on behalf of Ballymaloe and dedicated it to the memory of Myrtle Allen whose idea it was to have a trolley groaning with delicious desserts for her guests to choose from. She and her husband Ivan opened their home as a restaurant in 1964.

Everything about the ‘Oscars of Food Awards’ was super exciting. Chefs from all over the world flew in to give us a taste of their special little dish. The finest pata negra was carved off the bone into paper thin wisps, hundreds of oysters were shucked, tender abalone, black pepper soft shelled crabs, tantilizing tacos, chilli crab beignets and delicious coconut madelines, warm from the oven made by Cheryl Koh from Singapore, who promised me the recipe.

But perhaps what impressed me most was the short film by Perennial Farm shown at the beginning of the evening which reminded us cooks and chefs, what restaurants can do to combat climate change.

Chefs can help by:

• Sourcing from climate friendly farms and ranches.
• Going carbon neutral with zero ‘foot print’.
• Composting.
• Conserving energy and reducing consumption and waste. 
• Spreading the message that food can be a solution… 

It’s sooo worth thinking about how we can all do our bit.

Celebrating Local Culinary Talent

Super excited to have three new Michelin Star restaurants in County Cork, The Mews in Baltimore, West Cork under Chef Ahmet Dede, Ichigo Ichie in Cork City owned by Chef Takashi Miyazaki and Chestnut in Ballydehob with Chef Rob Krawczyk (a Ballymaloe Cookery School alumni). It focuses attention on the culinary scene outside the capital and hugely boosts the confidence of the many young chefs who are working tirelessly to raise standards in a time of tiny profit margins on food.

In the midst of all the euphoria came the budget and the reintroduction of the 13.5% VAT rate on restaurants, a whopping 4.5% increase from the 9% rate that enabled many, but not all to survive the recession. The hotel and restaurant scene in the capital is booming and profitable overall. The food scene in most of rural Ireland is quite a different scenario, the tourist season can be as short as 10-12 weeks. Many restaurants are just beginning to recover, from the crippling recession, starting to reinvest and were hoping to start a ‘rainy day fund’ to prepare for the inevitable next downturn which may not be too far away…

It’s all very disheartening… To maintain standards, continue to pay staff and local food producers, prices will have to increase significantly to enable restaurants to even stand still – a 2% increase was anticipated – 4.5% has totally knocked the ‘wind out of the sails’ of an industry that does so much to create employment, put Ireland on the global food map and boost tourism. I’m truly saddened and apprehensive – this can only result in dumbing down of standards, loss of jobs and closures - I so hope I’m wrong…

But to end on a positive I want to give a shout out to the recently published Currabinny Cookbook by super enthusiastic young foodies James Kavanagh and William Murray (ex Ballymaloe Cookery School student). The book exudes a love of food and their mission to encourage other cool young people like themselves (they have a huge fan base on social media), to discover the joy and larks to be had around the kitchen stove, doing pop-ups, selling at Farmers Markets and sharing the yummy food they’ve cooked with friends.

A Rewarding Trip to China

Recently I went all the way to China … The impetus for the trip was the news that my last book Grow Cook Nourish had been shortlisted for a World Gourmand Cookbook award. It was up against stiff competition including Stephanie Alexander’s Kitchen Garden Companion and Oprah Winfrey’s Food, Health and Happiness… I reckoned that my tome urging people to take back control over their food, grow some of their own and cook it, wouldn’t have a chance.

Nonetheless it was an excuse to spend a few days doing some edible research in China and surprise, surprise, Grow Cook Nourish WON a special award  - Best World Gourmand Cookbook 2017 -
and my publisher Kyle Cathie received the Publisher of the Year Award so that was definitely the ‘icing on the cake’ …

On this trip we took in Beijing, Datong, Pingyao and Yantai where
the awards were hosted.

Yes, I walked on the Great Wall of China, visited the Forbidden City, the Temple of Heaven, The Summer Garden and the totally awesome Hanging Temples near Mount Hengshan in the Shanxi Province but in this piece, I’ll concentrate on the food and the many good things we tasted.

The pace of change, in virtually all Chinese cities is just jaw
dropping, most of the traditional single or double storey houses have been demolished to make way for gigantic skyscrapers 28-30 stories tall, the horizon is dotted with the tallest cranes I’ve ever seen.

Peking duck is the great speciality of Beijing. Of course there are a
myriad of restaurants who serve it, Mongolian hot pot too, but if you have a craving for McDonald’s or KFC they are there aplenty,
however I’m always on a mission to taste the local street foods and so far, they are still a part of everyday life, even in Beijing where it
seems there is a huge push towards all things Western. A wander
through a local vegetable market is also an illuminating window into local culture and eating habits. One of Beijing’s most fascinating is the Sanyvanli Market, opens at 6am and has stall after stall of beautiful super fresh vegetables and exotic fruit, mangosteen, durian, lychees, pomelo, also ripe mangoes and huge hard scary grapes, some round, others pointy. All the fruit and vegetables were beautifully presented and packed including, boxes of spanking fresh waxberries (myrica rubra) also called Chinese bayberry, all juicy and delicious.Stalls were piled high with fish and shellfish, scallops, sea urchins, crabs, lobsters, crayfish, much of it still alive.

Butcher shops selling freshly slaughtered meat, black and white
skinned poultry and tons of offal. A wild mushroom stall with a mind-blowing selection of fungi including cauliflower mushrooms the size of a baby’s head. Two little bakeries, making Chinese flat breads,were nestled among the stalls. I loved watching them rolling huge rounds of dough – 2 feet in diameter and cooking it on a hot griddle, sometimes plain but often with chopped scallions or garlic chives incorporated. I took a little video so I can experiment, it was so delicious, I hope I can manage to recreate this popular breakfast bread at home.

The night markets are also a must, there are many but we visited the one just off Wangfujing Street, Beijing’s posh shopping street where all the luxury brand shops cluster. This area really comes to life after sun down.

Here I ate scorpion kebabs and crispy silk worms, surprisingly
delicious once you grit your teeth and decide to be adventurous. Lots of offal, squid and dumplings, chicken feet and gizzards and tiny toffee apples- a Beijing speciality. Lamb kebabs were also delicious but a roast goat (kid) leg with cumin and chilli was the best of all. This market was fun but a bit touristy.

Street food vendors are still a vital part of everyday life in China.
Dough stacks, youtiao, snacks like scallion pancakes, Jianbing . Sweet potatoes roasted in old cooking oil drums are also delectable.
Don’t leave China without attending a tea ceremony, a wonderful
ritual after which tea will never be the same again. We tasted ginseng, jasmine and gunpowder tea and puer, exquisite but sadly the teas I bought having been assured that they were identical quality were anything but – sadly a frequent occurrence in China, from taxis to restaurants. Follow the guidebooks advice, insist on using the taxi meter and check your bill meticulously…..otherwise a brilliant and delicious experience.

Hurray An Award!

We were absolutely thrilled to win Cookery School of the Year, at the glamorous Good Food Ireland Award ceremony at The Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin on Tuesday last.

It was a lovely surprise and a very welcome boost in this challenging economic climate - made all the more special when I got a congratulatory hug from our Taoiseach, Enda Kenny.

During the week the Restaurant Association of Ireland highlighted the fact that there is a crisis in the industry because of the shortage of trained chefs. So this is terrific news for all our students looking for exciting jobs after the course. The January 12 Week Certificate Course is booking really well, fortunately it's now looked on as an investment, because people know they'll learn the skills they need to earn their living in the food industry.

Image credit: Denis Minihane for the Irish Examiner.

And the winner is...

Guess what? My latest book, 30 Years at Ballymaloe, won the Avonmore Cookbook of the Year at the Bord Gais Irish Book Awards last week.

It was actually a total surprise.The whole thing was televised, and very glitzy. In fact it was such a surprise that I didn't even have a speech prepared, but I blustered through it. I do want to say special thanks to Avonmore and Bord Gais for sponsoring these awards.

I was in very good company: Rachel’s Everyday Kitchen and Catherine Fulvio’s The Weekend Chef were also shortlisted as were Neven Maguire’s The Nation’s Favourite Food, Kevin Dundon’s Modern Irish Food  and Ross Lewis for his beautifully produced Chapter One – An Irish Food Story.

The other bit of excitement we had this week Rachel and I were on Brendan O'Connor on Saturday Night, our first interview together! 

If you’re doing your Christmas shopping at the moment, you can order a copy of my book and I will sign and put a special personal message in it for you too. Or of course you can get it on Amazon!

We're running a great competition which is open to the 16th December - just name the year that a number of images featuring me in my trade mark glasses were taken, and win one of 30 two-and-a-half day courses here at the Ballymaloe Cookery School. For more details see our website. 

And don't forget Rory O'Connell's Master It, which I personally think is the cookbook of the year. Yes, he’s my brother and you may well be thinking ‘well she would say that, wouldn’t she?’ but that’s what I truly believe. His long overdue book is a real gem.

And on the subject of books, I’d also I'd like to draw your attention to a semi-secret gem that you might not have come across yet, The RainbowWay: Cultivating Creativity in the Midst of Motherhood, a new book by Lucy Pearce, a long-time friend of the family.

Short-listed for Irish Book Awards

It is so exciting to hear that I have been short-listed for the Bord Gas Irish Book Awards for my new book, 30 Years at Ballymaloe.

I am really delighted to be listed alongside Rachel Allen, Kevin Dundon, Catherine Fulvio, Ross Lewis and Nevin Macguire for this prestigious award. You can vote for my book here.