Here at the West Cork Hotel, we are dedicated and passionate about good honest food. Promoting local artisans, producers and farmers on our own menus and dishes that are served in our Bar and Restaurant in Skibbereen, as well as in many events that we are involved in, be this the West Cork Food Festival, our very own Celtic Cook Off or our associations to West Cork Food of the Firehouse Bread School.
West Cork is somewhat of a foodie’s heaven and we really are spoilt for choice in both quality and the produce selection available. Fanatical about food here, when we are not sampling the delightful foods of the area we are talking or writing about it, so it’s no surprise that we enjoy reading about food too!
Some of our favourite food blogs in Ireland and West Cork are:
The Irish Food Bloggers Association: A place to find plenty of tips and techniques, as well as lots of information about food in Ireland, the IFBA aims to act as a hub for all the food bloggers in Ireland, pulling in to one place all in the information about events, meet-ups and other foodie happenings taking place throughout the country as accessible as possible to all Food lovers!
Food Culture West Cork: Promoting the Fuchsia Brand and the regional producers and farmers of West Cork, the ethos of the blog is simple report on the local rural area of West Cork and the invaluable role that our farmers, producers, shoppers, chefs and grocers can play in maintaining communities and the natural environment.
Attracting an audience of over 200 food enthusiasts all of whom were packed in the Ballroom of our 
After much deliberation the winner was announced and Ireland’s Gary O’Hanlon was named the Celtic Chef Cook Off Champion for 2012. His winning dish was loin of lamb with wild artichoke, smoked tomato, crisp bone marrow and sweetened garlic provided by West Cork Garlic & sweetened with Honey that was purchased from a local producer. The Lamb was reared a couple of miles outside of Skibbereen and was picked up from Walsh’s butcher in Skibbereen.
A worth winner, Gary’s presentation blew all the guests away and, as did his great enthusiasm for the event and on receiving his award from Neil Grant, General Manager of the West Cork Hotel, Gary fro Longford seemed more than delighted, saying: ‘I’ve never won anything like this in my life!’
Starting with the sell out event – A Taste of Ondine, which took place last Tuesday evening and saw last year’s Celtic Cook Off winner and this year’s Celtic Cook Off judge Roy Brett, with the help of three of his brigade from Ondin, whom were brought over with him especially for the occasion, cook a meal that represented his multi award winning restaurant Ondine.
Since winning the inaugural Celtic Cook Off in 2011, Roy has been a great champion of the regions World Class produce and A Taste of Ondine gave diners a tantalising 7 course seafood tasting menu, which teamed the very best of West Cork produce with some of the finest foods from his home in Scotland, including some Scottish hand dived scallops, which were shipped in at the last minute.
The menu, which is shown below, showcased the best of the West Cork and dishes included the use of Stonewell Cider, Cheese from Manning’s Emporium Ballylickey, Rosscarbery’s Recipes Puddings, Woodcock Smokery’s fish and Union Hall’s catch of the day.
The Celtic Chef’s who did battle this year were; 
On Tuesday, we here at the 
On the night of the event and down to business, host John McKenna from the Bridgestone guides oversaw the event that took place here at the 
We are delighted to announce that a report on the