Top chefs celebrate St Patrick's Day with Ireland's finest produce

Bord Bia, the Irish Food Board, is gearing up to celebrate St Patrick's Day with some of the UK's top chefs to celebrate the quality and diversity of Irish produce.

 

The chefs including Simon Lamont, the Walrus Room, London; Rob Kirby, Lexington Catering; Aktar Islam, Lassan, Birmingham; Luke Tipping, Simpsons, Birmingham; Pascal Aussignac, Club Gascon, London; Adam Bennett, the Cross, Kenilworth and Kenneth Culhane, the Dysart, Petersham have shared their favourite recipes using the finest Irish ingredients, including beef, salmon, oysters, blue cheese and whiskey.

 

Kirby shared his recipe for jacob's ladder and Guinness cottage pie from his book The Family Kitchen, while Islam prepared a confit of salmon with tomato, onion and cucumber salad. Culhane contributed a recipe for a millefeuille of exotic fruit, with Midleton whiskey crème diplomate and rosehip syrup.

 

 

Making the most of their national saint's day, Irish ambassador Daniel Mulhall also hosted the Spirit of Sharing showcase at the Irish Embassy earlier this month, where he welcomed more than 130 of the UK's drinks writers, bloggers, top chefs, distributors and bar managers to sample Ireland's best spirits, whiskeys and liqueurs.

 

According to Mulhall, Irish whiskey is the fastest growing spirit in the world, with sales expected to double by 2020. Ireland's microbreweries have also seen a massive growth in numbers, from 10 in 2013 to the 90 in operation today.

 

Guests were also invited to visit one of two interactive bars, where mixologist Charlie McCarthy (All About The Cocktail) and his team made customised cocktails to each guest's taste.

 

Henry Horkan, manager of Bord Bia's UK office, said: "We are fortunate in Ireland to have a clean and natural environment that conspires with us to produce food and drink of the very best quality.

 

"The natural diversity of landscape lends the botanicals and grains for our gin, whiskey and craft beer. We now even produce fine fruit wine, again harnessing the bounty of our natural environment to innovate and offer something new and distinct. This fine balance of old and new has brought with it a new era of fantastic Irish drinks producers."

 

Mulhall added: "We were delighted to welcome so many industry experts to the embassy to help us share the success of Ireland's rich drinks heritage and its exciting future."

 

Bord Bia's 2017 Irish Food Market will take place in London's Trafalgar Square on 19 March.

 

 

 

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