Irish food writers' guild food awards 2023: 30 years of awarding greatness
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Loading... - Adriana Melo
- 07 Apr 2023
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Among the winners awarded at this year’s ceremony, which took place in Dublin on Tuesday 7th March, were producers of smoked Irish eel, unique sheep’s milk yoghurt from Co. Mayo, a Gaeltacht-based, female-led craft brewery, an eco-conscious, sustainable pig farm operation in the Boyne Valley and blessed are the cheesemakers: Gabriel Faherty of Aran Islands Goat’s Cheese for his notable contribution to Irish food and brothers Kevin and Seamus Sheridan who were bestowed a lifetime achievement award.
Across just eight awards, the membership of the collective of Irish food writers commend and celebrate Irish food and drink producers and food-based community initiatives that demonstrate a commitment to provenance, sustainability, quality and flavour above all else whilst enriching the wider landscape of Irish food and drink. With winners from as far north as Toomebridge in Co. Antrim on the shores of Lough Neagh and south as Chorcha Dhuibhne in the Kerry Gaeltacht, the Guild takes an all-island approach to their awards.
The big cheese
Cheese has long been an alter for the Irish Food Writers’ Guild to worship at and rightfully over the last number of years several iconic cheesemakers have been awarded the Lifetime Acheivement, including the Ferguson Family who produce Gubbeen in West Cork, Marion Roeleveld of Killeen Farmhouse Cheese in Galway, and Jeffa Gill of Durrus Cheese in Cork. Former winners of this same category have included Myrtle Allen of Ballymaloe, Con Traas (The Apple Farm), Peter Hannan (Hannans Meats), Sally Ferns Barnes (Woodcock Smokery), Nicky McLoughlin (Nicky’s Plaice), Veronica Molloy (Crossogue Preserves) and Oliver Hughes (Dingle Distillery, Porterhouse Group, posthumously) among others.
This year no fewer than four cheese industry heavyweights were awarded: Ballylisk of Armagh, Velvet Cloud (however, awarded for their ewe’s milk yoghurt, though they do produce a range of ewe’s milk cheeses), Gabriel Faherty of Aran Island’s Goat’s Cheese and the Sheridans brothers who are not only distributors and retailers but also educators, trainers and affineurs and cheesemakers in their own right. Read More…
