Three local producers win Blas na hÉireann awards
Three local food producers have been honoured with Blas na hÉireann awards – Mr Crumb, Durrow Mills and Killua Castle.
The all-island food awards recognise the best Irish food and drink products, and the passionate people behind them.
Killua Castle took home the gold, silver and bronze awards for their venison offerings, which include burgers, steaks and signature sausages. The Chef’s Larder gong went to Durrow Mills for their Organic Sprouted Buckwheat Flour.
Mr Crumb took home two gold awards for their Goat’s Cheese Bruschetta, and Handmade Chestnut, Port and Orange Ciabatta Stuffing, as well as the ‘Best in County’ award.
The awards ceremony usually takes place in Dingle but this year’s winners tuned in for a virtual celebration instead.
On Monday, Jason Coyle of Mr Crumb was present at Bank of Ireland Mullingar to collect his awards, bringing the total for the family-run business, based in Finea since 1996, to 25.
Mr Crumb supplies a range of ready hot meal offerings and artisan stuffing all over Ireland, in Paris and London, and just last week, also picked up two Great Taste Awards.
“The Blas awards are beneficial for companies because in a normal year, you’d have all the heads in Irish retail in Dingle for the awards ceremony, as well as international retailers such as Harrods and Morrisons,” said Jason, who added that this year the company diversified by launching a new offering called the Invisible Chef.
“We introduced a range of snacks for pubs and cafés and retailers in March. It’s targeted at Covid restricted foodservice rather than direct to consumer.
“When we saw Covid and lockdown coming, and as we supplied a lot of cafés at the time, we had to come up with a quick solution. We started making a range of products such as big fill burritos, croque monsieurs, panini and vegan wraps, and found unique sealed packaging that works across all devices, such as microwaves, panini grills and regular ovens. It means the customer can be 100% assured of food hygiene. We can also provide an oven for €3.65 a day to small food outlets.”
Blas na hÉireann is the biggest blind tasting of produce in the country, the criteria on which the product is judged as well as the judging system itself, was developed by Blas na hÉireann with the Food Science Dept of UCC and the University of Copenhagen, is now recognised as an industry gold standard worldwide.
Chairperson of the awards Artie Clifford feels that now, more than ever, it is essential to shine a light and give that all important boost to the talented producers dotted around the island.
Above photo: Ita Gray, Longford Westmeath Bank of Ireland manager, presents Jason Coyle of Mr Crumb in Finea with two Gold awards, and the 'Best in County' award for Blas na hÉireann on Monday.