We have become used to Irish speciality foods waltzing off with prizes, gongs, awards and medals in international shows. The recent Great Taste Awards in London continued the trend, in particular for Miriam Griffith, who makes the flavoured Olvi Oils.
The Great Taste Awards are unique, inasmuch as the foods are tasted completely blind, in various categories - beverages; oils, dressings and sauces; jams and preserves; biscuits; meat and charcuterie; confectionery; and miscellaneous - and are judged only against other foods of the same category, with the object being to choose the winners on the grounds of taste alone. Packaging, design, marketing and all the paraphernalia of the marketplace count for nothing.
Olvi Oils walked away with no fewer than three medals. The basil pesto won a gold medal, the black olive paste won a silver, and the sundried tomato pesto tidied things up neatly with a bronze. Griffith won half of the medals awarded in her category and shared the gold medals with Rosarie and Kevin O'Byrne's West Cork Herb Farm Basil Oil.
Other producers who won medals included Ed Hick, the Sallynoggin butcher, whose salami twists won a bronze, Frank Hederman of Cobh, whose smoked salmon won a bronze also, and Terry Whelan Meats won a silver for its smoked pastrami.
Over In the International Cheese & Dairy Competition, the Bord Bia trophy for the best Irish cheese was won by Bill Hogan and Sean Ferry's Desmond, made just outside Schull, in West Cork, whilst Eugene and Mary Burns, who make Ardrahan Farmhouse Cheese, won a silver medal for their smoked cheese and a bronze for the standard Ardrahan.