Search is on to find Northern Ireland’s Young Cook of the Year!

The Dairy Council for Northern Ireland today began its search to find the best cooking talent in school’s across Northern Ireland with the launch of the Young Cook of the Year competition.

To celebrate that Derry ~ Londonderry has been awarded the honour of the first ever UK City of Culture for 2013, the popular cooking competition is inviting students to chose an event from the calendar of activities and prepare a two course meal to entertain friends who will be watching the celebrations.

The cookery competition, which aims to promote cooking skills and highlight the importance of a balanced diet, is encouraging students to use locally sourced ingredients, including dairy products to produce a nutritious meal.

Dr. Mike Johnston, Chief Executive of the Dairy Council for Northern Ireland, said: “We are looking forward to starting our search to find Northern Ireland’s next budding chef.

“We recognise that 2013 is set to be an exciting time for Northern Ireland. We want to celebrate this while educating young people about the importance of using dairy products to create a meal that is suitable for sustaining a healthy and active lifestyle.

“We would like students to make use of a wide variety of dairy ingredients such as milk, cheese, yogurt and buttermilk when considering their meal plan to showcase that dairy products are a simple and economic part of any balanced diet.”

The competition has been developed in consultation with the Education and Library Boards and supports the Home Economics curriculum at Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4.

Winners will be chosen from each Education and Library Board area, with the overall category winners and the Young Cook of the Year announced at a special cook-off in March 2013.

Entry forms will be sent to all schools and colleges in Northern Ireland and are also available online at www.dairycouncil.co.uk. The closing date for completed entry forms is 1st March 2013.

Caption: Alana Buckley from Ulidia Integrated College helps Michael Drayne, Chairman of the Dairy Council for Northern Ireland to launch this year’s Dairy Council Young Cook of the Year competition.

At the risk of becoming boring, we just wanted to tell you that they’ve won more awards!!

These ones are really important as they’re for their favourite thing (behind bacon, of course and beef maybe?) – sausages.

This National Sausage Competition had over 200 entries and was organised by the Ulster Pork and bacon forum.

“We were delighted to have been awarded the following:

 

National Sausage Competition

1st Prize – Gourmet Speciality Pork Sausage – Spicy Italian sausage.

Product Innovation Award – Sweet Italian Pork sausage

2nd Prize – Pork sausage – Regional

 Our Italian sausages, both the spicy hot and non-hot (sweet) are 100% local pork, coarsely ground and authentically seasoned with fennel, garlic, black pepper, etc.

They are delicious in pasta dishes, on top of pizzas or grilled on some good bread with simple salad leaves.

You can use them on top of robust beans or lentil dishes, or add them to other meats in hearty stews or cassoulets.

The Italian sausages cost £6.60/kg and are available to order now.

The pork sausages cost £4.40/kg and are available in a range of flavours.

NB: All sausages have always been produced with local pork, by hand, by Hannans

Award-winning local chef, Danny Millar is supporting the Department of the Environment’s ‘Love Food, Hate Waste’ campaign which kicked off during the European Week for Waste Reduction,  joining leading food industry professionals across Europe who are pledging their support to waste less food.   Danny, whose County Down restaurants Balloo House, The Parson’s Nose and Lisbarnett House are included in all the leading food guides, is providing recipes, hints and tips to encourage the use of leftover food.  The chef, who regularly appears on BBC’s Saturday Kitchen believes this is an excellent initiative which encourages people to be creative, commenting: “Wasting food costs the average household £480 a year, rising to £680 for a family with children. Families can save up to £50 a month by following simple guidelines and doing practical everyday things. The benefits of using leftovers, food storage, controlling portion sizes and sourcing local ingredients can make a huge difference on family budgets, the environment and can really support the local economy. Danny Millar is pictured with [Debbie Nesbitt from the campaign with] one of his delicious dishes, made using a variety of leftover food. More recipes and other waste reducing hints and tips are available at: www.ni.lovefoodhatewaste.com.

To improve brand awareness of the local flour milling leader and position the company for future growth, Northern Ireland’s only independent flour company Andrews Flour undertook a business growth programme consisting of website re-development and package re-design.

From their base on Percy Street in Belfast, they mill a wide range of premium quality flours for use in both the household and commercial bakery. With 290 years of experience, the advantage of combining traditional skills with modern milling technology, and exceptional knowledge of what the local customer requires has established Andrews Flour as a market leader.

A key part of its progressive strategy is the packaging re-design of the popular Ormo Flour range for the home baker and smaller craft bakeries. This includes Ormo Plain, Self Raising and Soda Bread Flour, all available in 1.5kgs. packets. With that, Andrews Flour aims to improve the customers’ shopping experience, resonate the quality and excellence of the brand and maximise display visibility across the supermarkets in Northern Ireland.

Both Ormo Bread and Flour have an iconic image in Ulster and all home bakers know Ormo Flour can be relied on to give outstanding baking performance.  Therefore, to conserve the supreme quality and taste of Belfast’s favourites Ormo Soda and Wheaten Bread, Andrews Flour continues to supply the finest flour.

To leverage the company’s profile and increase public awareness, Andrews Flour also transformed their website.

Michael Taylor in Andrews Flour said “Our objective was to successfully communicate our promise to our customers. We expertly blend different varieties of wheat to mill premium flours, with our constant focus on satisfying the baking requirements for versatile recipes and traditional Irish breads.”

“Professor Lester Manley and his team in Manleys, the branding house based in Belfast helped us renovate and align the website with our brand and values wrapping it in visual, modern, friendly and wholesome web-design. On the website you can also learn more about the history and key accomplishments, of Northern Ireland’s oldest flour mill”.

The Managing Director of Manleys, prof. Lester Manleys commented: “We are delighted to work in close partnerships with one of the most renowned companies in Northern Ireland and to help them evolve and improve the customer experience both online and in-store.”

Michael Taylor with new Ormo Flour

Improve, the Food and Drink Sector Skills Council has launched the third year of ‘Tasty Careers,’ a campaign designed to educate young people about the wide variety of excellent careers opportunities available within the food and drink manufacturing sector.

Following the success of last year’s initiative, ‘Tasty Careers,’ which is supported by the Department for Employment and Learning, is providing talks from ambassadors in schools across Northern Ireland, highlighting the 6,000 jobs available for skilled workers. To be recruited by 2017, these job opportunities equate to approximately one third of the current employment levels.

Employing over 19,000 full time employees, the food and drink sector is the biggest single manufacturing industry in Northern Ireland. During school visits, ‘Tasty Careers’ ambassadors will give presentations to pupils, bringing to life examples of case studies of those employed across a range of job types and levels within the sector.

Students will receive an insight into the ambassadors’ day-to-day activities and long-term career prospects as well as advice on the best qualifications and educational path to their current position within the sector.

Commenting on this year’s campaign launch, Geoff Lamb, NI Operations Manager, Improve, said: “‘Tasty Careers’ continues to be a very popular initiative in schools across Northern Ireland and we are delighted to be launching it again this year. In the current economic climate, we want to educate students about the significant career opportunities available in the food and drink sector – a pivotal and stable industry in Northern Ireland contributing in excess of £3 billion a year to the local economy.

“Supported by government bodies and key players within the industry, we want the ‘Tasty Careers’ campaign to make pupils consider their careers options and educate them in an industry that has an impressive average starting salary of up to £22,000 and has impending skills shortages and gaps within the market.”

For more information or to book an ambassador, schools can visit www.tastycareers.org.uk

JE Toms & Sons of Portstewart is celebrating this morning after collecting the Overall Winner and Housewife’s Choice accolades at the 2012 National Sausage Awards.

The awards, run by the Northern Ireland Pork & Bacon Forum, had over 120 entries this year making it the biggest competition to date.

Norman Brown, Chairman of the Forum commented,

“I am delighted to see JE Toms & Sons win the National Sausage Awards.  Their traditional pork recipe was hailed the best sausage in the province by an expert panel of judges.  Butchers and independent retailers should be rewarded for their dedication and commitment towards the local supply chain.  We would also like to thank DARD and the team at the NI Regional Food Programme for the funding that enables the awards to happen.”

Norman further commented,

“Each entry should also be praised for their innovation and use of specialist ingredients.  We had sausages including honey, Ballyblue Cheese, blackberry, toffee apple and black pudding.  We would encourage all shoppers to visit their local butcher and pick a pack for Northern Ireland Pork sausages.  The local butcher is an important part of our regional high street.”

JE Toms & Sons has been a mainstay on Portstewart Promenade for forty four years and Derek Toms who received the awards on the night said,

“We are absolutely delighted with first place at the National Sausage Awards.  We have won regional winner eight times in the past and this year we surpassed ourselves by collecting the Martin McEvoy Trophy for Technical Excellence alongside the main award.  I would like to thank the judges and hope that the awards go from strength to strength.”

“We consistently perform to a high standard and this is the fourth Overall Winner award in the eleven years the competition has been running.   JE Toms & Sons have a dedicated team in store ready to help and I would encourage all shoppers who are heading to the North Coast to call in.”

The Martin McEvoy Cup was awarded to the team with the best technique during sausage production.  This includes weight, appearance and recipe.  Each regional winner also received point of sale posters and stickers to highlight the awards and encourage consumers to purchase the best in Northern Ireland Pork.

With over 2.3million sausages consumed each week in the UK, it certainly is big business.  The Northern Ireland Pork and Bacon Forum would encourage shoppers into their local store and ask for Northern Ireland Pork.  The awards sponsored by DARD are an important mainstay in the butchery promotions calendar.  On hand to present the Overall Award from DARD was Steven Millar for the Northern Ireland Regional Food Programme.