Craft Butchers Crowned All Ireland Food Champions
24 Sep 2015
Craft Butchers Crowned All Ireland Food Champions
- Awarded at Food & Hospitality Ireland in Citywest-
Kilkenny’s Grogan & Brown Artisan Butchers have been named Best Craft Butcher Shop of the Year by the Associated Craft Butchers of Ireland (ACBI) at this year’s Craft Butchers Star Shop Awards held at retail and hospitality expo, Food & Hospitality Ireland, which took place at the Citywest Hotel Wednesday September 16th . Grogan & Brown’s all-Ireland winning performance led them to victory, with the award being presented by the Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Mr. Tom Hayes, T.D. and Mr. Bobby Kerr, entrepreneur and business man.
In the category accolades, O’Gorman’s Butchers of Castledermot, Kildare won ‘Best in Rural’ and the title of ‘Best in a Shopping Centre’ went to O’Brien’s Butchers, in Kilkenny Shopping Centre, Loughboy.
Meath’s Thomas Doherty Craft Butchers was crowned Supreme National Sausage & Pudding Champion for his Pork and Leek Sausage.
The competition was judged by the highly knowledgeable Leslie Williams, food writer for the Evening Herald and Irish Examiner and member of the Irish Guild of Food Writers and the very experienced Marilyn Bright also a member of the Irish Guild of Food Writers.
Overall the judges were impressed with the quality and innovation of the products in Citywest. Leslie Williams was very impressed by the unique tastes, flavours and most of all with the quality of the sausages describing the winning Speciality Pork and Leek Sausage as “a beautiful meaty sausage, expertly made with a nice leek flavour and perfect seasoning.”
The Traditional Sausage category was won by Padraig Byrne, The Cork Meat Company.
Cork Craft Butchers Jack and Tim McCarthy, McCarthy’s of Kanturk ran away with cups, bringing home the treble this year; winning Supreme Speciality Food Champion for their Smoked Air Dried Beef andwinning Best Black and White Pudding in Ireland.
Leslie Williams described McCarthy’s Black Pudding as being “full of flavour and well-seasoned” and their White Pudding as “nicely balanced with good texture and perfectly seasoned.“ Their Supreme Champion title winning Smoked Air Dried Beef was described as being “expertly crafted slices of beautiful beef, bursting with flavour.”
The Ready to Eat category was won by joint winners O’ Connells Victuallers, Little Catherine Street, Limerick for their Christmas Ham and Denis O’Reilly, Premier Meats, Thurles for their Cheese & Onion Maryland with Minced Smoked Bacon. The Ready to Cook category winner was Seamus Etherson, Etherson Family Butchers, Cabra for their Chicken En Croute.
Julie Cahill Marketing Manager ACBI said “It has been a fantastic year for our National Craft Butcher awards; the standard in each competition has risen dramatically. Craft Butchers around the country are experts when it comes to shop design, customer service, product knowledge and product innovation. Craft Butchers are the only retailers who practice and continue to practice traditional butchering techniques but yet are contemporary in their product offering, Craft Butchers are at the top of their game when it comes to quality Irish meat. I encourage you to visit your local Craft Butcher and to shop local.”
For further information:
Julie Cahill
Marketing Manager
Associated Craft Butchers of Ireland
E julie.cahill@craftbutchers.ie
T 01 8682820
