Taking centre stage at this year’s Hospitality Exchange will be two-star Michelin chef Daniel Clifford, the chef patron of Midsummer House in Cambridge. He will join the star line-up at this year’s event, which will continue to celebrate the Northern Ireland Year of Food and Drink.

Regarded as one of the most inventive chefs in the UK, Daniel Clifford has an exceptional pedigree having trained at some of the best restaurants in the UK and France. In addition to his time with Jean Bardet, who Clifford cites as his biggest influence, he also spent time with Simon Gueller at Rascasse and Marco Pierre White at The Box Tree. His story in Midsummer House began in 1998 and he was awarded his first Michelin star in 2002, followed by a second in 2005. The restaurant continues to win acclaim holding 5 AA Rosettes, a TripAdvisor Travellers Choice award and is noted as one of the best restaurants in the UK by the Waitrose Good Food Guide.

His extensive and wide-ranging experience has contributed to his internationally acclaimed cuisine, hailed as modern British cooking underpinned by an unmistakably French style. His panache in the kitchen saw him win Great British Menu in 2012 and 2013, latterly progressing to the role of judge. His stature in the industry was acknowledged in 2015 when he was named the AA Chef’s Chef of the year. He continues to make regular appearances on Masterchef – The Professionals, Saturday Kitchen and Burger Bar to Gourmet Star. In 2016, a member of his talented bridge at Midsummer House will represent Northern Ireland in the 2016 Great British Menu competition.

In addition to the acclaimed Midsummer House, Daniel opened a new gastro pub venture, the Flitch of Bacon located in Little Dunmow, Essex in 2015. Daniel’s commitment to local ingredients is well known and commenting on his upcoming local engagement he says:

“I am delighted to be taking part in Hospitality Exchange 2016 and visiting Northern Ireland. It will be a great experience for myself and the brigade at Midsummer House. I look forward to being introduced to some great Northern Ireland produce and celebrating the Northern Ireland Year of Food and Drink.”

Hospitality Exchange takes place on the 18th and 19th October 2016. As part of the event, Daniel Clifford will create a gourmet dinner and take part in a chef panel of demonstrators.

Ards and North Down Borough Council’s first Peninsula Food Showcase will take place in picturesque Portaferry on Saturday 30 July (12noon – 6.00pm). The showcase will be the first in a series of events which will take place around the Ards Peninsula from July until October to celebrate Northern Ireland’s Year of Food and Drink.

The Portaferry Showcase will complement the Skiffie Worlds 2016 World Coastal Rowing Championships which will hold its closing ceremony in Strangford on the same day and the exciting programme will include; local chef demonstrations, food tastings, artisan food producers and family-themed fun.

Come and watch local chefs prepare delicious food at the live cookery demonstrations, sample some local produce from the artisan producers, kids will love the Giant Seagulls and the two-metre long friendly seal which are part of the street-theatre programme or find a good vantage point to enjoy the rowing on beautiful Strangford Lough and welcome the Skiffs ashore for their closing ceremony.

Mayor of Ards and North Down, Alderman Deborah Girvan, is looking forward to the festival. She said:
“Ards and North Down has around 115 miles of coastline: one of the longest stretches in Northern Ireland. Fishing has been a major industry in the area for many years. Local communities such as Portavogie – which is the second largest fishing port in Northern Ireland after Kilkeel and home of the Portavogie prawn – remain at the centre of the trade today. It’s no surprise that we catch and cook some of the best seafood imaginable. The food showcase will give us a chance to do just that – show off what wonderful food we catch and cook. As well as providing a full day of free, fun, family entertainment.”

The Skiffie Worlds Rowing Championships are being hosted by The Strangford Lough Partnership & Lecale Partnership (SLLP) working closely with the Scottish Coastal Rowing Association (SCRA) and part-sponsored by Ards and North Down Borough Council. The event which runs from 25 to 30 July, will be a colourful and friendly celebration of coastal rowing including competitors from all over the world. On July 30 at 4.30pm, come and see an incredible spectacle, never seen before in Strangford Narrows, as 50 beautiful, colourful, traditionally styled coastal rowing boats enter The Narrows and come in to Strangford and Portaferry accompanied by the Johanna Lucretia tall ship.

Portaferry Visitor Information Centre are holding a family fun day on the same day with ‘Clayrazy’ and glitter tattoos. This free event runs from 2pm to 4pm. There will also be an Open Day and Marine Discovery at the Queens University Lab running from 10am to 4pm.

If you fancy a family day out with some food, fun and rowing, come to Portaferry on July 30. The Food Showcase is a free event and runs from 12 noon to 6pm. The Skiffie Worlds Closing Celebrations runs from 4.30pm to late in Strangford.

As part of The Peninsula Food Showcase, special events will also be taking place in: Portavogie on 13 August, Donaghadee on 10 September, Ballywalter on 9 & 10 October and Greyabbey on 29 October.

For more information, phone Ards Visitor Information Centre on 028 9182 6846 or visit www.visitardsandnorthdown.com

Northern Irish newcomer named best local restaurant in UK alongside a gourmet garden centre and remote Highland eatery

A restaurant in County Armagh, Northern Ireland has beaten eateries across the UK to be named the overall winner of the Waitrose Good Food Guide Local Restaurant of the Year Awards.

Wine & Brine, located in the picturesque small market town of Moira, has only been open since December, but its commitment to “seasonal and local ingredients at ridiculously reasonable prices” means it has both been named not just the top choice for Northern Ireland but also crowned overall winner by the editors of the Good Food Guide, which is published by Waitrose.

The awards have also unearthed regional winners in unusual locations, including a gourmet garden centre, along with restaurants in far flung places of the country.

When making a trip to the local garden centre you might not expect to find a top quality eaterie amongst the pot plants and wheel barrows. But Mrs Miller’s, perched above Hazel Dene Garden Centre, near Penrith in Cumbria, has bloomed to such an extent that it’s been awarded best local choice in the North West. It was judged “a unique and refreshing place, a garden-centre café that focuses on local ingredients and knows how to create feel-good flavours.”

The Whitehouse Restaurant on the West Coast of Scotland has won best Scottish Local Restaurant. Located in Lochaline, it is described by the Guide as being “about as remote as you can get without leaving the mainland.” Diners travelling from outside the immediate local area will most likely have to take a ferry. One happy customer, who nominated the restaurant, Awards. said it has “local, fresh food, prepared unpretentiously and supremely well.”

Elizabeth Carter, Waitrose Good Food Guide Editor, says, “The simple formula of a kitchen that cooks fresh to order is the very principle on which our guide was founded. We have always maintained that the best restaurants offer creative, memorable food based on quality, seasonal and local produce. In other words no pretensions or gimmicks, just first-class food cooked from ingredients deeply rooted in the region. A commitment to their community and a strong relationship with local suppliers is what makes a restaurant truly local.”

The annual Good Food Guide reader-nominated awards recognise the best neighbourhood eateries up and down the country. And to mark their tenth year, the awards have been renamed ‘Local’ Restaurant of the Year*’ to encourage diners to look much closer to home and champion the unsung restaurants right on their doorstep. The Guide also only looked for new winners this year, with the hope that smaller, lesser known establishments would be discovered.

After sifting through 30,000 nominations, the editors of the Good Food Guide have announced the top dining establishments in each of ten different UK regions. The awards are based on public nominations with a panel of Good Food Guide judges choosing the most outstanding for their overall winner.

Wine & Brine is run by husband and wife team Chris and Davina McGowan. Chef Chris had previously worked alongside top chefs in London such as Richard Corrigan and Gary Rhodes before returning back to Northern Ireland after two decades away.

Speaking about what made Wine & Brine the overall winner, Carter continued, “A role-model of its kind, Chris McGowan’s relaxed restaurant has a big heart, friendly, laid-back staff and generous cooking of fresh, seasonal and local ingredients at ridiculously reasonable prices. A hive of endeavour, it is no wonder that Wine & Brine has a huge and very vocal fan base. Every town should have a restaurant of this standard.”

Davina McGowan, joint owner of Wine and Brine says, “To say we are delighted by this accolade is a great understatement. We are positively ecstatic to be chosen as the overall UK winner. We are such a young business, it makes it all the more profound for us. It’s a testament to all our hard work over the years ahead of setting up Wine & Brine, which we always wanted to be a place where people wanted to come to eat and enjoy spending time with friends and family.

“We are trying to make good food accessible to everyone, using local suppliers. We only have one draught beer, and that’s from a brewery a few miles away. Our butcher is within a five-mile radius, as are most of our suppliers.”

The regional winners and overall winner have been announced today (27th July 2016).

The winners are as follows:

Northern Ireland and Overall Winner – Wine & Brine, Moira, County Armagh
South East – The Compasses Inn, Crundale, Kent
London – Portobello Ristorante Pizzeria, Notting Hill
North West – Mrs Miller’s, Culgaith, Cumbria
North East – Peace and Loaf, Newcastle
Scotland – The Whitehouse, Lochaline, Highlands
Wales – Sosban and the Old Butcher’s, Menai Bridge, Isle of Anglesey
Midlands – The Jockey, Baughton, Worcestershire
South West – Wilks, Bristol
East England – The Duck Inn, Stanhoe, Norfolk

While the Year of Food and Drink continues to gather momentum with restaurants and at shows and festivals across Northern Ireland, we have begun to consider how best to carry the campaign forward into 2017 by developing legacy initiatives especially in key areas such as innovation.

We want, for instance, to build on the tremendous support for Year of Food and Drink provided by so many of our immensely talented chefs. We are considering a scheme to enable up and coming chefs, students from colleges across Northern Ireland to sharpen their skills with those in Northern Ireland and further afield with much greater experience. Over the past few months, for example, we’ve supported visits here by celebrity chefs such as Jean-Christophe Novelli, who highlighted the magnificent Clipper Kitchens in Derry, part of the Foyle Maritime Festival, and Romy Gill, a welcome guest to the Salmon and Whiskey Festival in Bushmills.

We’d certainly wish to see more female chefs coming to the fore, and I’ve been immensely encouraged to see some ‘stars of the future’ leaving colleges as award winners. Of course, we have several trail blazers like Paula McIntyre, Trish Deseine, Jenny Bristow and Danni Barry, the only female Michelin star chef in Ireland. But we need more to help us in continuing to enhance our position as a destination offering culinary excellence.

I was interested to read a recent report that only about a fifth of professional chefs in Ireland are female. It’s a problem facing every part of Europe. Earlier in 2016, for example, the influential French food magazine Le Chef released its 100 of The Best Chefs in the World 2016. The list is created by asking 528 Michelin-starred-chef voters to each provide a list of five names of those who they think best represent the cooking profession. Only four women were listed in the Top 100, none of then in the top10! And at the recent Restaurants Association of Ireland (RAI) Awards, held in Dublin, in the categories for individual winners, featuring Best Chef and Best Restaurant Manager, all the awards went to men. A report by the Irish government -Future Skills Needs of the Hospitality Sector – released late last year, estimated that there were 23,948 chefs in Ireland in 2014. Around 20 per cent were women. Research in the UK estimated there are around 250,000 chefs, only 18.5 per cent women.

Interestingly the first female chef in the UK to hold three Michelin Stars, Clare Smyth, is from Co. Antrim. She was also acclaimed for her skills by the Good Food Guide. Clare, in a recent interview, reckons female chefs could be doing more to promote themselves more effectively. Perhaps, we shouldn’t be focusing on gender and women chefs and instead should be talking in terms of addressing the shortage of chefs per se. The legacy initiatives we have in mind won’t be gender specific. What we want is to develop the strongest pipeline possible of talented and creative chefs and the conditions in which they operate. Working as a chef is often a tough and demanding vocation, and this contributes to the overall shortage of qualified chefs, including women, across the island in what is a fast growing sector. Government departments, the colleges and professional and representative bodies here are aware of the manpower challenge and are addressing this.

Our focus will continue to be on developing practical initiatives that support and enhance those of other public and private sector organisations and encouraging those in hospitality to aim for excellence at a national and international level.

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New chapter for Uluru Bar & Grill as Aussie chef Dean Coppard hits the coast

When Northern Ireland’s only Australian restaurant moved from its intimate setting as a bistro to becoming a spacious casual dining bar and grill, all eyes were on what would happen next.

It’s the restaurant which put Armagh city on the culinary map for its Australian themed menu created by Sydney ex-pat Dean Coppard.

It’s the restaurant which, for 10 years, brought kangaroo and crocodile to our plates creating a unique Uluru Bistro dining experience for everyone in Northern Ireland.

But after two years of planning its major transition as part of a £2million investment to create Uluru Bar & Grill and two years of mentoring sous chefs on how to cook local produce with an authentic Australian twist, the popular city centre restaurant is about to enter its next phase.

Executive Chef Dean Coppard, a dad, husband, mentor and keen surfer, is swapping the food pass for a new challenge on the north coast and is handing over the baton to the Head Chef Mark McGonigle, a chef who has been working under the Uluru brand for 12 years.

Confirming the move, Dean said: “The team of chefs, which I affectionately call the #ulurucrew, have been brought through such a process in the past 18 months. My job has been to see the guys through this major transition, mentor them, teach them cooking techniques which I have been using for years, help them develop new cooking techniques and lead Head Chef Mark and his team through the process of running and managing a busy kitchen.

“In the past 12 months, Mark has totally excelled himself through his cooking styles, calmness in the kitchen and dedication to creating great tasting dishes which our customers love. Under Mark’s guidance too, the team have shown they can totally nail cooking in an Australian style and they are also totally competent in leading Uluru Bar and Grill forward on its journey. The variety of dishes Mark and the team are coming up with is phenomenal. They are creative perfectionists who, quite simply, want to cook great food which our customers love.

“Mark and the team have more than proved their worth and it’s their turn to bring their ambitions into a reality and I have been honoured to be their mentor.

“At this point I am not in a position to officially confirm what I will be doing on the North Coast but I am looking forward to the next stage of my career and of course I’ll be able to squeeze in a bit of surfing.”
The restaurant, which has 10 chefs and 20 front of house staff, is growing in popularity week on week.

Owner Gavin Emerson said: “Together we have all been on such an immense journey over the last 18 months. Dean’s experience, professionalism and dedication has been instrumental in mentoring Mark and his team. We all wish Dean good luck with his new venture and we look forward to our Head Chef leading the team in continuing to put great tasting food in front of our customers.”