Pictured: St Catherine’s College Armagh teacher Frances Meeney, whose pupil Cassi Morrison won the competition for her Lamb with herb crust, roast vegetable and mash.

An Armagh student has been crowned School Chef of the Year at Mullahead Ploughing Championships.
Cassi Morrison represented her school, St Catherine’s College Armagh at the event and was awarded the trophy after competing in a live ‘cook off’ with five other finalists. The other finalists attended Banbridge Academy, Killicomaine JHS and St Patrick’s College Banbridge.

The initiative, led by Tesco Northern Ireland and Mullahead Ploughing Society, was designed to uncover the culinary skills of local students and inspire them to use and enjoy the fresh food produce that is, quite literally, on their doorsteps.

Nine schools and 34 students in total from across Northern Ireland entered the competition, which required contestants to prepare a main course using as many local ingredients as possible from Tesco suppliers.
The six finalists cooked their dishes which were then judged on value for money, the number of local ingredients used, taste and creativity, by a team of hungry judges.

Cassi, who cooked a delicious lamb with herb crust and roast vegetables, will receive £1000 award for her school, as well as a tour of Irwin’s Bakery for her class and £100 for herself. The six finalists all received a £50 gift voucher to spend at Tesco Northern Ireland stores.

The contest is part of Tesco Northern Ireland’s ongoing commitment to supporting local schools and educating young people on the rich heritage of food and drink in the region.

Caoimhe Mannion, Tesco’s Marketing Manager in Northern Ireland, said: “This is a fine example of education and industry working together to further support our local suppliers.

“We feel this competition was a great way for the students to unleash their culinary and creative skills, whilst learning about the quality produce we have on our doorstep, and acts as an engaging reminder to families to support local suppliers and celebrate the wealth of produce we are lucky enough to have on our doorsteps. Well done to all the finalists – the judges thoroughly enjoyed the dishes.”

Enterprise, Trade and Investment Minister Jonathan Bell has welcomed the export ambition of Linden Foods during a visit to its Tyrone headquarters.

Owned by Fane Valley Group, the award winning meat processor is planning to expand into new markets and double export sales with its new premium brand of Turf & Clover products. The Dungannon based company launched its new brand portfolio of beef, lamb, poultry and pork meats to trade buyers at Anuga 2015 and is now following up on several leads across Europe.

Jonathan Bell said: “Linden Foods Limited is a market leader within the Northern Ireland fresh meat processing industry and makes a valuable contribution to growing our agri-food industry. The development of its Turf & Clover range demonstrates Linden’s commitment to innovation in order to remain profitable. Linden’s export ambition reinforces the company’s passion to expand its international presence and leverage the profile of its award winning produce during Northern Ireland’s Year of Food and Drink 2016.”

Linden Foods services a range of retail multiples, convenience food manufacturers and the wider meat packing industry in the UK and Europe.
Gerry Maguire, Managing Director of Linden Foods said: “Profiling our Turf & Clover range at Anuga was tremendously successful for us and gave us an unrivalled platform to strengthen Linden’s worldwide reputation for our finest Irish meat cuts.

Our customers appreciate our Fane Valley Co-operative roots and our 100 year history of supplying for and to the farmer. Visitors to our stand at Anuga were quick to identify with the key messages underpinning the new range and the fact that our beef comes from exceptional breeding farms in Ireland with a short and integrated supply base. They fell in love with our green land and the island’s geographic location, lush grass and wet weather conditions, which are unique and assist in producing an animal of the utmost quality.”
Gerry continues: “After a challenging couple of years in the sector our sales outside the UK have stayed relatively stable at £42million for 2015 complimented by new export contracts to countries such as Germany, The Netherlands, France, Denmark and Finland.

We have high hopes for Turf and Clover internationally and our sales team have set targets for entering new markets for the forthcoming years, with customers from Dubai, Malta and Romania all extremely interested in Turf and Clover.”

Article written by Food NI CEO Michele Shirlow for Farm Week.

Top marketers recommend ‘Influencer Marketing’ as vital, in other words focusing on the key individuals who can best spread your message. One of Food NI’s goals in 2016 is acting as a host to leading food and drink writers who are keen to see and experience what Northern Ireland producers, especially artisan enterprises, are developing. In this role we’ve briefed many of the top writers from Great Britain and the Republic of Ireland about our food and drink producers and our superb restaurants.

Food NI is building connections with these key influencers in neighbouring markets because they offer huge business opportunities. Great Britain, for instance, imports around £40 billion worth of food and drink annually. Winning even a small slice of this business would provide enormous benefits for our companies. Building strong relationships with key influencers is a major element in our drive to help companies to grow sales. A coherent and consistent approach to this is the best way to support growing companies and we work very closely on this with Tourism NI.

Last week we hosted three key influencers, Pete Brown – a native of Somerset and leading cider expert who visited County Armagh, Charlie Turnbull, a cheese aficionado who sells artisan cheeses from his shop in Devon and advises P& O on food to serve on top cruise ships – he spoke in Derry, and Valentine Warner, TV chef and a key influencer on the London food scene. He was at Belfast’s Focus on Food. All left with a positive impression of our food and drink offering here, each wanting to return and each leaving behind some wise guidance for the small producers they met. All were unanimous in their view that our food landscape here is surprisingly different from the food scene in Great Britain.

We also have especially close relationships with prominent food journalists such as MasterChef judge Charles Campion, Xanthe Clay of the Daily Telegraph and the Guardian’s Fiona Beckett. Another recent visitor and friend to Northern Ireland, Lucas Hollweg, produced a five-page special in the prestigious Delicious magazine, one of the most important UK magazines for foodies. Hollweg’s excellent piece – The Northern Ireland You Need to Know – will certainly have encouraged the magazine’s readers to look for our food in their stores and to consider travelling here to experience the best of what our producers have to offer.

Pete Brown, one of the leading experts on cider and craft beers, certainly knows his cider and where to find the best apples. We introduced him to many of our leading cider producers in Armagh at the Heartland Food Forum. Pete wrote and an important magazine feature in Britain – How Northern Ireland is becoming a player in the cider market.

Pete found that our cider tends to be different from Britain in that producers here use 100 per cent pure apple juice, much of it from tart Bramleys – without concentrates, “something few commercial-scale English cider makers will do”. He added that Northern Irish ciders are “a mix of eaters, cookers and cider apples and, as such, they’re a little more open and appley than cider from the west of England, with a tart, refreshing sharpness”. His conclusion, great for Northern Ireland, is that there is a “new kid on the cider block. Check it out, and share in the optimism and momentum that’s about to redefine our perception of Northern Ireland”.

So, observations of Northern Ireland are changing throughout Britain – driven by an ever-growing band of supporters and influencers. Much has already been achieved.

The challenge, of course, is to ensure that readers – and other consumers – find it as easy as possible to buy our food and drink. We need to intensify and co-ordinate efforts to present and promote our products, especially those from artisans and smaller producers, in Britain as well as the Republic.

We’ve a great deal more to do but we are using Year of Food and Drink as a magnet to attract many more visitors to help us build momentum throughout 2016 and beyond. We’ll be focusing on developing new contacts and on consolidating our relationships with existing influencers in helping to position Northern Ireland as an ideal tourism destination and as a source of innovative and outstandingly tasty food and drink

THE award-winning Mourne Mountains Brewery has broken lent to announce a brand new and very limited edition chocolate Belgian stout named Chocolat Chaud.

Master Brewer Tom Ray has created a very special stout using raw cocoa nibs in the mash to give a deep, chocolately flavour. Orange peel and cloves late in the boil have added some Belgian spice to the brew and it’s been fermented with a fruity, continental yeast. The result is a robust and warming stout with plenty of body.

Founder of Mourne Mountains Brewery, local entrepreneur Connaire McGreevy said: “Our last two seasonal beers, Pumpkin Porter in the autumn and First Noel at Christmas were both extremely popular and we want to keep up the momentum in the new year.

“We decided to get the ball rolling with Chocolat Chaud which is an intriguing brew with complex and somewhat unconventional flavours. We think it makes an excellent alternative to Easter eggs for adults, or to a pint of Guinness this St Patrick’s Day!

“You’ll have to get your hands on a bottle before it’s too late though, it is a one off, limited run brew and will only be available in bars, restaurants and off-licenses across Northern Ireland while stocks last.

“It’s our aim to keep producing seasonal beers, creating opportunities for beer enthusiasts to taste unique brews that are produced locally and we’ll have at least a couple more specials later this year.

In addition to their seasonal specials, Mourne Mountains Brewery, based in Warrenpoint, produces five core beers available in bottles and on draft: Mourne Gold pale ale, Red Trail red IPA, Big Rock wheat beer, Mourne Mist pilsner and the award winning East Coast IPA.

Visit www.mournemountainsbrewery.com for more from Mourne Mountains Brewery. #jointheclan

Sam Butler talked to Michael Henderson, owner of Born and Raised Waffles, about Belgian waffles and his recently established small business.

Michael Henderson recently joined the farmers’ market scene with a range of traditional Belgian Liège waffles originally from Belgium. It’s quite a venture for Michael, currently based near Hillstown Farm, a hub of artisan enterprise, at Ahoghill in Co. Antrim because he’s never been to Belgium! “I am planning a field trip there soon to learn more about the waffles I love to bake,” he says.
His waffles have proved extremely successful at the markets he’s attended around the greater Belfast area including Victoria Square, the Inns on Saintfield Road and most recently Ballyhackamore. He’s also signed up with Food NI.

What attracted Michael to join Northern Ireland’s burgeoning artisan food revolution is a love of baking. “I used to watch my mother baking and learned a lot from her. It was something I always wanted to do. It started out as a hobby and is quite a leap from my original training as a metal worker. I worked in the ventilation business and then at Shorts for 11 years. I guess I’ve always been good at working with my hands and then had a long held desire to start my own small business,” he continues. “I like being my own boss.”

Michael decided to take the plunge into business about 10 years’ ago and set up a small cleaning business before moving into running a vending equipment, providing sweets and crisps. It was his first move into the food business, an experience he enjoyed and it encouraged him to sell up and to look at other opportunities.
“I wanted to turn my interest in baking into an artisan food enterprise. Publicity surrounding the success of the food industry and the run up to Year of Food and Drink led me to look for a unique bakery product that I could turn into a small firm. I looked at the market here and came to the conclusion that there wasn’t much scope in sectors such as breads, morning goods, cakes and tray bakes. There’s an abundance of these products on the market from longer established bakeries. I reckoned there just wasn’t any room in the marketplace for a start up,” he explains.

A gap he spotted in the local market was for authentic Belgian Liège waffles that he could offer initially as a different and delicious ‘street food’. “One of the interesting developments I’ve noticed here is the emergence of different street foods. I’ve seen Coppi selling Italian dishes in an attractive antique Citroen van and Mourne Seafoods also offering lobster burgers at markets from a mini caravan. Jolly Pies has developed a tasty range of pies from market stalls. So, why not authentic waffles prepared and cooked on site?”
He carried out extensive market research on recipes for Liège waffles and began baking them for test marketing with family and friends. They proved popular. His next step was to buy an old horsebox and to transform it himself from his experience of metal working into a mobile waffle bar.

Michael, a father of two young children, then created an identity, Born and Raised for the new start up business – Born in Belgium and Raised in Belfast, his home town. What’s a Liège waffle? “Well, it’s a richer, denser and sweeter waffle native to the street food of Belgium. They’re an adaptation of brioche bread dough, featuring chunks of pearl sugar caramelize on the outside of the waffle when baked. It’s a yeast-raised dough and is more akin to a sweet bread. Overall, there are about 500 Liège waffle recipes for me to work on.”

He was also quick to support local suppliers for ingredients. The flour comes from Andrews in Belfast and coatings such as malted chocolate, Armagh Bramley jam and sea salted caramel from Brambleberry Jams and Sauces in Lisburn, another local artisan. His initial range is cinnamon spice, plain and salted caramel.
Wife Lisa is working with him in developing the business that he set up in October. She also runs her own small business, Lisaire, a successful string quartet. Lisa is a talented violinist and member of the Ulster Orchestra.
He’s already moved to the next stage of the enterprise’s development. “I’d obviously hope to develop a retail product. This will mean looking at important areas such as shelf life and packaging. I’d certainly be keen to move forward on these and build on the popularity of the waffles at markets and food venues around the province,” he adds.

Michael is following the tradition In Belgium, where most waffles are served warm by street vendors and dusted with confectioner’s sugar, though in tourist areas they might be topped with whipped cream, soft fruit or chocolate spread.
Most common types of waffle available in Belgium are prepared in plain, vanilla and cinnamon varieties by street vendors across the nation.