First Minister Arlene Foster MLA has welcomed a delegation of top chefs and buyers from Dubai hotels and UAE based foodservice distributors to Northern Ireland as part of a visit showcasing the pure, natural, quality of local food and drink.

Speaking following a reception at Lough Erne Resort last night, Arlene Foster said: “It is a privilege to welcome this delegation of top chefs and buyers from Dubai to Northern Ireland. This visit is an exciting opportunity to showcase Northern Ireland’s unique food and drink heritage and the pure, natural, quality of our food produce.
“Sales to customers in Dubai have grown considerably over the past three years and the interest shown in Northern Ireland by such an influential group cements the prestige of our offering in this region. The Middle East is a market of great potential for Northern Ireland food and drink and this visit presents a valuable opportunity to local food and drink producers to meet with buyers to explore potential business opportunities with the aim of securing new export sales.

“Northern Ireland’s Year of Food and Drink 2016 presents an opportunity to celebrate our award winning indigenous foods. Invest NI is continuing to work closely with its contacts in the Gulf, to maximise the growth opportunities for local businesses and build on the prestige imported products have in this marketplace.”
The three day visit, organised by Invest Northern Ireland, and jointly hosted by Tourism NI, is designed to build on the successful relationships established by many local companies exporting to the Middle East.

Northern Ireland’s young professional chefs are invited to compete in the S.Pellegrino Young Chef 2016.
The renowned Nestlé Waters brand which is distributed in Northern Ireland by United Wine Merchants, has announced the return of the competition which in its inaugural year drew more than 3,600 entries from across the globe with Ireland’s Mark Moriarty triumphing as the overall winner.

“It was an unforgettable trip and an experience I will never forget,” said Mark Moriarty from Ireland. “I met so many amazing chefs and to win such an esteemed award really made a difference to my career.”

This year 20 young chefs from many different geographic areas will compete for the coveted title of S.Pellegrino Young Chef 2016 and UWM brand manager, Emma Haughian, is hoping for success for Northern Ireland chefs.

“We have some very talented young chefs working here in Northern Ireland and as a result our culinary scene developing rapidly. I would encourage those professionals under 30 to get their applications in before the 31st March deadline and take their place on the world stage,” said Emma.

The results of the competition will be based on the judgement of the Seven Sages of world cuisine. The panel of top international chefs will be composed of: Carlo Cracco, Mauro Colagreco, David Higgs, Gaggan Anand, Elena Arzak, Wylie Dufresne and Roberta Sudbrack. They will taste the dishes of the challengers and decide who deserves to become the best young chef in 2016.

Acclaimed chef Peter Gilmore will also help mentor participants this year, with young chefs from around the world invited to submit their entries alongside their signature dish. Chefs must be no older than 30 and are required to have at least one year of experience working in a restaurant as a chef, sous chef or chef de partie.

The candidates will be divided into 20 regions and their submissions will be evaluated by the ALMA College in Italy, a leading international education and training centre for Italian cuisine. Ten finalists from each region will then be selected in accordance with the competition’s five ‘Golden Rules’: ingredients, skill, genius, beauty and message.

The finalists will participate in live competitions held in each region from 1 May to 15 August 2016, where the chefs will have to cook their signature dishes for a regional jury comprising independent chefs who will taste the dishes and select one winner. On 13 October, the Young Chef finalists will meet in Milan for two days of competition in front of the international panel of judges, who will ultimately crown the Young Chef for 2016.

For more information on the S.Pellegrino Young Chef 2016 competition, visit www.finedininglovers.com or follow #SPYoungChef online.

After the January break, we are looking forward to welcoming everyone back to the next Comber Farmers’ Market on Thursday 4 February 2016, St Mary’s Parish Church Car Park, 9.00am – 1.30pm.

Our plant and flower traders (Trainview Farm, Uncommon Garden Company and Ivan McCutcheon) will be taking a break until March or April as they have no plants or flowers growing at this time of year. However, we have a full house on Thursday with 24 traders attending. We are pleased to welcome:

• Mark Douglas, the Krazi Baker from Dromore who was a big hit at our Christmas market with his fabulous soda farls, potato bread and award winning apple cakes

• Kenny Gracey from Forthill Farm in Tandragee selling free range beef and pork from traditional breeds

• Paul Hamilton, a local farmer from Comber who will be selling vegetables and fruit

• Gary Lecky of the Fabulous Food Factory. Gary has an outside hot food catering business and is based in Lisburn. He will not be selling his hot foods and drink at our market but is diversifying into food production and will be bringing along a range of pre-packed, savoury ready meals; pates; smoked chicken, duck and salmon; homemade salamis and chorizo sausage; and biltong and beef jerky.

Weather
According to the BBC weather forecast, it is to be cloudy and dry on Thursday morning, temperatures around 10C and wind speed of 16 mph.

Calendar
Never miss a CFM again! Print the attached calendar and put it up on your fridge door. Help us to spread the word by forwarding this email to any friends, family or contacts that are interested in good food or post it up on your facebook page!

Glenarm Organic Salmon has developed a new own label organic smoked salmon product for Fortnum and Mason, the upmarket London retailer.

The own label smoked salmon follows the successful launch last year by the company of its own branded product at the Piccadilly store. Glenarm Organic Salmon is also now supplying organic smoked salmon to Fortnum and Mason’s popular fish and seafood counter.

Based at Glenarm in Co Antrim, the company is the only Atlantic salmon farmer in the Irish Sea

The vast majority of its output of fresh and smoked salmon is exported to five- star, and above, hotels and restaurants in the US, Europe, Singapore, Thailand, Hong Kong and Dubai.

Norman Murray, Glenarm Organic’s Commercial Director, commenting on the business with Fortnum and Mason, says: “Securing the initial business with such a prestigious retailer was a marvellous boost for the company and for our new signature smoked salmon product as well as being a tremendous endorsement of the quality of our premium organic smoked salmon. The retailer is an ideal fit for the upmarket profile of our salmon.

“We were delighted when Fortnum and Mason subsequently asked us to develop a new branded smoked salmon product exclusively for them. This was launched successfully recently and then led to an order to provide organic smoked salmon sides for their fish counter in the store as well as for inclusion in their renowned food hampers. Our organic smoked salmon is replacing their wild salmon offering because we offer consistent and sustainable availability as well as a high quality product,” he adds.

Glenarm Organic Salmon uses a unique smoking technique developed in conjunction with Northern Ireland’s leading fish and seafood curing businesses. The two artisan companies have collaborated on the curing process that involves smoking the salmon slowly over a fragrant mix of beech and oak wood chips and is based on a century-old recipe.

Glenarm Organic Salmon harvests, processes and dispatches all its fresh salmon within 24 hours. It is able to ship products across the world in just three to four days, ensuring a fresher product and longer shelf life for the retailer and consumer. The production of its organic smoked salmon offering acknowledges and operates to time-honoured traditional curing and smoking processes which results in a product which they believe is second to none.

The company has been in business since 2008 and farms around 600 tonnes of premium organic salmon annually and sells every fish it products, the overwhelming majority to customers in international markets.

Sam Butler talked to Ken McNaull about his innovative micro bakery, Go Yeast, in Donaghadee. Article from Farmweek 28th January 2016

Ken McNaull left a successful and lengthy career in accountancy to pursue a passion for bread-making especially sourdough. He now runs an artisan bakery with wife Anne, Go Yeast, in Donaghadee. Anne has also developed patisseries including croissants, brioche and Copenhagens.

“I’d always been keen on cooking and food and became fascinated by various types of artisan breads,” Ken says. “I jumped at an opportunity to take this longstanding interest a stage further by setting up a micro bakery in Donaghadee,” he adds. “I needed to find our more about the process and in particular how to produce sourdough, a very different bread with a distinctively rich flavour.”

Sourdough is fundamentally a handcrafted bread which uses a ‘starter’ of combined flour and water fermented slowly over several days with regular additions of flour and water by the wild yeasts and lactobacilli naturally present in ground grain. The starter is then added to the baker’s dough, which is left to rest and rise for several hours. This produces delicious bread with a firm and springy crust.

Sourdough is regarded as being healthier because it is said to be more digestible than standard loaves and more nutritious. Lactic acids make the vitamins and minerals in the flour more available to the body. The acids slow down the rate at which glucose is released into the blood stream and lower the bread’s glycaemic index (GI), so it doesn’t cause undesirable spikes in insulin. They also render the gluten in flour more digestible and less likely to cause food intolerance.

Ken’s first step in his knowledge journey was to sign up for a three-month course at top chef Darina Allen’s internationally renowned Ballymaloe Cookery School near Cork. “This was my epiphany. The breakthrough helped me to realise the opportunity for artisan sourdoughs in Northern Ireland. The practical support and advice provided at Ballymaloe was excellent.

“I also met Andrew Whitley there and developed a friendship with him. His success in creating one of the UK’s first organic, artisan bakeries, the Village Bakery at Melmerby in Cumbria, was a huge influence on my thinking about my business. In addition, he launched naturally fermented sourdough breads.

Originally from Coleraine, Ken enhanced his culinary skills by working as a breakfast chef in a country house hotel in Co. Clare. He then joined an advanced bread-making course at the School of Artisan Food at Welbeck in Nottinghamshire. “It was an intensive course that covered all aspects of bread making including fermentation techniques and the use of wild yeasts which are found naturally in the air.”

Encouraged by his participation in the ‘Go for it’ business start up programme, Ken took the plunge into self-employment and set up the micro bakery in 2014. “All of the breads that I bake normally contain only four basic ingredients, flour, water, salt and yeast. There are no additives such as inhibitors, improvers or enzymes usually found in better-known breads.

“I also use nuts, seeds, fruits and grains. Oils and butter are sometimes added in small quantities. Traditional breads are made using fresh yeast or dried active yeast, I never use instant yeast, ” he explains.
The Go Yeast brand was the brainchild of Noah, his 16-year old grandson.

He is meticulous in the flour in his bread and uses only stoneground, organic products from specialist suppliers such as Shipton Mills in Gloucestershire and Dunany Farm near Dundalk. “Dunany is a traditional fourth generation family farm milling high standard, quality grain, particularly wheat, and a wholesome, nutty, coarse-grained flour. Their spelt and rye flours produce nutritious low gluten breads. I also use artesian water from Helen’s Bay Organic Farm and unpasteurised milk for some breads from an organic supplier in Kilrea, Co. Derry.”

He was helped by food technicians at Loughry Campus of the College of Agriculture, Food and Rural Enterprise in the development of his breads.

An enthusiastic supporter of the Real Bread Campaign and Real Bread Ireland, Ken now produces a range of sourdough, rye and malted products that he handcrafts and packages for distribution to local cafes such as the trendy Haptik in Newtownards. He developed a unique breakfast bread for Haptik with coriander, fennel and orange zest.

“I was attracted by the commitment of Real Bread to authentic products made without the use of any artificial additives. The campaign seeks, finds and shares ways to make bread better for us, better for our communities and better for the planet.

“Real Bread Ireland is a support network of real bread bakers and others whose aim is to encourage us all to eat better bread, whether we buy it or make it ourselves. It aims to see the standard and quality of bread raised throughout Ireland so that we can all have access to the very best bread possible, both nutritionally and in terms of taste,” he adds. “I am also watching an initiative by University College Dublin to promote ‘Heritage Breads’ as part of the focus in the Republic on innovation within the food industry.”

More than 200 industry leaders were briefed by Food NI today about the programme of activities planned for Northern Ireland’s first ever Year of Food and Drink.

First Minister Arlene Foster joined directors and senior managers from food and drink companies, artisan producers and chefs at the official industry launch of the year-long campaign at a breakfast held by Food NI in the Europa Hotel, Belfast. The First Minister said: “I am thrilled to be able to support this fantastic initiative which presents an exciting opportunity for us to celebrate all that is great about Northern Ireland food and drink.
“As Northern Ireland’s biggest manufacturer, the food and drink sector contributes £5 billion to the economy, it generates sales abroad in excess of £4 billion and provides employment for around 100,000 people across an extensive supply chain.
“I commend Food NI for the work they do to enhance Northern Ireland’s food and drink reputation. Events such as this give us a valuable opportunity to reflect on the importance of the food and drinks industry to our local economy

“The importance of the Year of Food and Drink 2016 cannot be underestimated and I am right behind everything this initiative is setting out to do. I believe it will be a great success and that it will make a huge contribution in the drive to grow Northern Ireland tourism to a new level.”
Agriculture Minister Michelle O’Neill, who also attended the event, said: “Year of Food & Drink 2016 is an opportunity to celebrate our food and drink successes and capitalise on these through trade and consumer communications. It is opportunity to harness the benefits of these successes to drive quality, innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship in our food and drink sector. It is also a chance to share the supply chain story from producers through to consumer.

The Minister continued: “As we celebrate the most important meal of the day, as part of Farmhouse Breakfast Week, this event provides the perfect opportunity to showcase the excellence of our local producers and the strength of our agri-food industry as a whole. I wish Food NI every success with their year long programme of activities that will provide a key engagement platform for our local food and drinks industry.’’
The briefing was held as part of Breakfast Month, the first theme in the extensive promotional and marketing campaign for Northern Ireland’s biggest manufacturing industry. It also coincided with Breakfast Week organised by the Home Grown Cereals Authority in Britain.

The industry briefing followed the launch last week for the tourism industry held by Tourism Northern Ireland.
John Best, Food NI Chairman, speaking at briefing, urged the food and drink industry to embrace the business and other opportunities already flowing from the Year of Food and Drink campaign.
Mr Best said: “We see this immensely important campaign as an opportunity to intensify existing efforts to showcase the outstanding taste, quality and variety of our award winning producers and chefs to local people, as well as providing opportunities to strengthen our appeal to business visitors and potential tourists to Northern Ireland.

“A major promotional drive is being co-ordinated by Food NI to create new business opportunities for local companies, both large and small, by increasing consumer awareness of our food and drink within Northern Ireland and abroad for each month next year. It promises to be a really exciting and rewarding 366 days which, I am confident, will benefit substantially local companies, rural communities and the wider economy.
“Local food and drink companies will have a key role to play in ensuring the success of this campaign. We need their backing, experience and expertise to achieve the campaign’s objectives,” he added.
Michele Shirlow, Food NI Chief Executive, said the campaign had already attracted enthusiastic support from local companies such as Tayto, major retailers including Tesco and Asda and artisans who have secured shop space at Belfast International Airport.

“Tesco has already provided a marvellous boost to the campaign by pledging a promotional campaign to showcase our fantastic food and drink worth around £500,000. The retailer already spends upwards of £500 million annually on purchasing local food and drink and has helped many smaller companies, including artisan enterprises, to develop sales here and also to win their first business with stores in Great Britain.
“Tesco will spotlight local producers and products, giving the public here an unprecedented opportunity to get to know producers and to give shoppers more opportunities than ever before to sample the quality and innovation of local products. This will increase awareness of local products and provide producers an opportunity to increase sales.

“There will be further opportunities for our companies to grow business at the BBC Good Food Show, which is being held in Belfast for the first time and is among the most successful promotional events for UK companies, and the Food NI Pavilion at Balmoral Show, which promises to be bigger and better than ever. It’s likely that upwards of 100 local food and drink companies including many artisan enterprises, will be showing and sampling products at Balmoral, which attracted around 100,000 visitors last year. Both are consumer-focused events.
“Showcasing and promoting the breadth and quality of what’s readily available here for local people and visitors and thereby boost sales is, of course, what our Year of Food and Drink is all about. The campaign is focused sharply on assisting companies to win more business.

“We will be telling people here and abroad about the products and the enterprising and creative people behind them….and also encouraging and challenging consumers to buy more local food and drink,” she added.