-Hundreds turn out to become record breakers

 

As part of the Northern Ireland Year of Food and Drink 2016 plans, Tourism Northern Ireland gathered hundreds of people in the Courtyard of Belfast Met Titanic Quarter (Tuesday February 9) to attempt to break a Guinness World Record for the most people flipping a pancake. The current record for the most people flipping a pancake for a duration of thirty seconds in one place, without dropping it, currently stands at 890, but Tourism Northern Ireland together with Asda, which supplied the frying pans for the flip, Irwin’s Bakery and Belfast Met, hopes to smash it by getting 1000 flippers.

Rachel Quigg, Tourism Northern Ireland, said: “This month’s Northern Ireland Year of Food and Drink 2016 theme is ‘Love Local’, so what better way to celebrate than getting hundreds of locals, including students and members of the public together to try and break a world record, and on Pancake Tuesday!”

The daring record-break attempt took place in sight of the world’s largest Titanic attraction, Titanic Belfast, and the SS Nomadic, tender to the Titanic and the last remaining White Star Line ship in the world.

“We’d like to thank everyone who attempted the record as well as Volunteer Now who provided our stewards, well-known chef, Niall McKenna and Diane Poole OBE from Stena Line who were the independent judges and our two time keepers, former boxing champion, Brian Magee and Natasha McClure.”

Joe McDonald, Asda NI commented: “This huge gathering of pancake flippers is the perfect way to bring Year of Food and Drink 2016 to life, have some fun and celebrate all that is great about our local produce. Asda is proud to support the initiative which is sure to make Pancake Tuesday another day to remember in this important year-long celebration.”
“It’s fantastic to be involved in the World Record attempt today with Tourism Northern Ireland,” Colette Wilson, Irwin’s Bakery said. “It is a very exciting time for Northern Ireland and the Year of Food and Drink 2016 is going to be a great way to celebrate so many Northern Irish brands, highlight the quality of our food and of course the warmth of our hospitality. The pancake flipping attempt is a perfect example of this – I hope we break the record!”

Harry Robinson, Curriculum Area Manager for Catering and Hospitality at Belfast Met, said: “We are thrilled to host this event during the Northern Ireland Year of Food and Drink 2016. Belfast Met have developed a year-long programme of events with our talented staff and students to celebrate it. We wish all students the best of luck with the record attempt and would also like to thank them for their efforts and enthusiasm.”

There will be a nervous wait now for the record attempt to be validated by the Guinness World Records.

“We have put all the evidence together and sent it to the Guinness World Records. We are very hopeful we have broken the record but we won’t know for sure until we get the official word – wouldn’t it be flipping marvellous to have taken the record!” concluded Rachel.

For more information on Year of Food & Drink 2016 visit www.discovernorthernireland.com/yearoffoodanddrink2016. You can keep up to date with what’s happening on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram using #EnjoyNI16.

HASTINGS Hotels has continued its commitment to supporting local food producers by signing a new deal with Portadown beekeeper Lyndon Wortley to supply his Waggle Dance Honey, made in Northern Ireland, to its six hotels.

Howard Hastings, Managing Director of Hastings Hotels said: “Food provenance is of utmost importance to us and we have worked hard to ensure that where possible, we buy locally produced ingredients for our guests to enjoy. Which is why I am delighted that we have secured a new partnership for locally produced Waggle Dance Honey from Lyndon Wortley, who is a prominent member of the Northern Ireland Beekeeping Association.

“At breakfast our porridge oats come from White’s in Tandragee and this is accompanied by fresh cream from Farmview Dairies in Belfast or Bushmills Whiskey. And now for the first time, we are able to offer our guests a honey accompaniment from Portadown.

“The honey that Lyndon produces collaboratively with other local NI Beekeepers, Waggle Dance, is named after the figure-eight dance of the honey bee, as it searches for pollen and indicates the best places to search to its fellow bees. The honey is also being used to glaze the vegetables in our special menus during February, when ‘Love Local’ is the theme throughout the province for the 2016 Northern Ireland Year of Food & Drink,” Howard added.

Local beekeeper Lyndon Wortley said: “I am thrilled to have secured a contract with Hastings Hotels to supply its six hotels with my Waggle Dance Honey. Working alongside my father Leslie, we provide help and accommodation for a few colonies of honey bees, deep in ‘The Garden of Ulster’. I look forward to working with Howard and the chefs in his six hotels to ensure guests from around the world enjoy a true taste of Northern Ireland.”

-Product of the Show Finalists Announced –

THE shortlist for the IFEX 2016 Product of The Show Award has just been announced, ahead of the main event, which is Northern Ireland’s largest food, drink, retail and hospitality event, taking place at the Titanic Exhibition Centre, on 8-10 March 2016.

Recognising the very best innovation and development within the industry, ten products have been shortlisted from the 140 plus exhibitors – including food, drinks, packaging, equipment and technology.

Caroline McCusker, Event Manager of IFEX comments: “IFEX has long been recognised as being a national platform for thousands of fantastic products, from the bigger well-known companies and also from small independent producers, who are creating innovative and niche goods to meet with rising customer expectations.

“IFEX Product of the Show is a great platform to highlight and reward the hard work behind these products. The standard of entries that we received this year was phenomenal and this year’s shortlist is filled with some very deserving finalists – it will be a challenge for our independent panel of judges to settle on a winner.”

The finalists include Yummy Bakes, Paganini, Blazin Digital, Suki Tea, Tamnagh Foods, Glass 2 Sand, Dunnet Bay Distillery Ltd, Food Safe System, Butterfly Cup and SousVide Tools.

All of the finalist products will on display at IFEX and the winner will be officially announced on the first day at 14:45 on The Stage in the Chef Skills Theatre.

IFEX 2016 is taking place from Tuesday 8th March to Thursday 10th March at the Titanic Exhibition Centre, Belfast. The show opens daily at 10am and runs until 6pm on Tuesday and Wednesday, and to 4pm on Thursday. Register your attendance for free now at www.IFEXexhibition.co.uk. Follow IFEX on twitter @IFEX_NI or via Facebook.com/IfexBelfast or join the IFEX NI Group on LinkedIn.
– ENDS –

Northern Ireland has a unique culinary heritage with indigenous breads, fish from loughs, world class produce and progressive artisans contributing to the agri-food sector in the province.

Within Slow Food NI our aim is to work closely with farming and community groups to raise awareness of the global movement and increase membership. Our focus will be to target schools and FE colleges directly to encourage young people to join. We also wish to raise awareness and funds for the 10,000 Gardens in Africa charity and to address food poverty and food waste issues.

There are currently 4 Chef Alliance members in NI and we hope to increase that number. The Ark of Taste currently has two foods representing NI and we will increase that in 2016.

We are already working with councils to develop the SAINT initiative from a food perspective and we have the full support of Food NI and Tourism NI to take Slow Food forward. 2016 will be the Year of Food and Drink in NI and Slow Food NI will play a major part in this.

We also work with food producers taking their products to achieve PGI and PDO status.
NI was represented at Terra Madre in 2014 but we believe we should have a strong independent presence in 2016.
We look forward to welcoming you to Slow Food NI and taking the “good, clean, fair” ethos to the province.

Membership starts at £11 per year for concession e.g students. Visit: https://www.slowfood.org.uk/about/join-us/

Article from Farmweek by Michele Shirlow

Love Local, the theme for February, the second month of Year of Food and Drink, which is now well underway, focuses on everything local including products for Valentine’s Day. If you happen to be thinking of a special treat for a loved one, such as chocolate, you’ll find tasty options locally from a host of successful and award winning artisan chocolatiers.

Many of the companies are Food NI members such as Blackthorn Foods in Belfast, Foster’s Chocolates in Craigavon, Saintfield’s Norr and Brown, Holywood’s La Coquine, the quirky Neary Nogs in Newry and Chocolate Manor in Coleraine. All produce superb handmade chocolates. You can count on these enterprising small businesses for chocolates that combine outstanding quality and taste with value for money.

They each offer a deliciously different range of lovingly handcrafted chocolates – from truffles to salted caramels even cheese and port – it works! Blackthorn create excellent fudge, a speciality also of Eleanor Craig’s in Ballycarry in Co. Antrim. They all have interesting stories to tell that add depth to their businesses. I urge you to try them, I am confident that you won’t be disappointed.

Look out this month for celebrations by Tayto who are celebrating their 60th year. It was a lovely surprise to arrive off the Gatwick Express in Victoria Station last week and to be greeted by a display of their iconic yellow packs of cheese and onion.

A key objective of Year of Food and Drink is to showcase the quality and innovation now underpinning the local industry and to encourage more people here to ‘love local’ when shopping.

I appreciate that it’s early days in the campaign – just a month in – but I was delighted to hear recently from several local food companies, including some very small enterprises, that business in January was better this year than the year before. I met a large number of local producers, both large and small, at a series of successful and inspirational events held during ‘Breakfast Month’ in January including the Food NI Year of Food and Drink launch at the Europa Hotel and Tourism NI workshop sessions throughout Northern Ireland.

There was a tremendous buzz at all the events and a great willingness to engage with the year-long campaign. From Enniskillen to the Armagh attendees produced some original ideas to get the message out about our great food and drink. It’s clear to me that Year of Food and Drink has caught the imagination of the industry and is winning support from the wider public here. It’s being recognised increasingly that our food and drink is fantastic and that consumers can boost the economy and employment here by investing in local produce.

The outstanding quality of our local food and drink was recognised recently during a very innovative event organised by Invest NI’s Food division. The business development agency brought a group of top notch chefs from Dubai here to visit local producers and to team up with a number of our talented chefs in a ‘Larder Challenge’ using the splendid culinary facilities at Belfast Metropolitan College. The chefs were challenged to create original dishes using local ingredients ranging from beef and venison to seafood and vegetables.

The goal of what proved to be an immensely successful ‘cook off’ was to introduce the chefs from the Emirates to quality local food and to encourage them to include these ingredients in their menus.

Working with them – and reinforcing the message about our food and drink – were local culinary pioneers such as Simon Dougan of Yellow Door in Portadown and Sean Owens of Montgomery Consulting in Aughnacloy. The end result was an outstanding buffet of highly original dishes that would not be out of place on the menus of five-star hotels in Dubai. I was also delighted that Invest NI invited a host of smaller companies to be present, to showcase their products and to meet the visiting chefs. It was a marvellous occasion and very innovative. It clearly demonstrated that is it easy to love local.

As part of NI Year Of Food and Drink 2016, 17 culinary students from SRC visited Rich Sauces in Newtownards on Tuesday 9th February. Rich Sauces produce mayonnaises, sauces, dressings and bouillons for sale exclusively to the catering trade. As part of #lovelocal month Rich Sauces are keen to show culinary students what is being produced on their doorstep, well 60 miles up the road.
The meeting started with Tim Kells, Marketing Manager showing the Rich Sauces Story and explaining their ethos of More Flavour = More Customers = More Profit.

After a general introduction to Rich Sauces business the group split in two. One group toured the BRC manufacturing site and saw the wholesale sauces being produced. The second group discussed the challenges faced by the Rich Sauces development team when it comes to creating new recipes both for their own range or bespoke sauces for a large volume customer.
The trip concluded with a tasting session of 12 www.richsauces.com products. Firstly a direct comparison between Rich Sauces Great Taste Award winning Vegetable bouillons and the “Brand” Leader. Then the students took the mayo challenge

This was followed by a select tasting of wholesale sauces and wholesale dressings. It concluded with a cruel taste challenge of sampling Grim Reaper chillies. Ask Hazel what see made of it? She is the BOSS
To find out more about Rich Sauces please visit www.richsauces.com or if you are interested in culinary classes at SRC please contact www.src.ac.uk