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.

A fast paced evening that had one break for audience members to sample the artisan foods on display from local producers, the 6 chefs cooked in 2 rounds, with 3 chef’s cooking at any one time. John McKenna over saw proceedings and kept the audience informed on what each chef was preparing, what cooking methods were being used and what ingredients they had opted for.

A Close fought battle; each chef had just 30 minutes to complete their dish that used West Cork Produce as well as one wild card ingredient of their own choosing for the 6 tough judges which included Tim Anderson, BBC MasterChef Winner 2011, Roy Brett of Ondine Restaurant in Edinburgh who was last year’s Celtic Cook Off winner & Joe McNamee, Food Writer of the Irish Examiner.

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.

Using the very best of West Cork and helped by our Head Chef Aidan O’Driscoll as well as this year’s Celtic Chef Competitor Tony Singh, who volunteered his help to an old friend, A Taste of Ondine Menu was served within our Kennedy Restaurant in Skibbereen to 80 diners as part of A Taste of West Cork Food Festival.

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.

A Taste of Ondine Menu

Goujeres & Sparkling Wine

Woodcock Smokery Cullen Skink
Smoked Pollock, Leek & Potato’s

Sally Barnes Smoked Salmon
Soda Bread, Shallots & Capers

Hand Dived Scallops in the Half Shell
With Avril’sWhite Pudding

Union Halls Grilled Fish of the Day
Black Cabbage, Girolles & Whipped Potato

Stonewell Cider Jelly
Buttermilk Ice Cream

Mannings Emporium Cheeseboard
With Fig Jam & Oatcakes

Neil Grant, our General Manager summed up the spirit of the evening, remarking on the service and comradery between Ondine and West Cork Hotel kitchen teams considering they had not previously worked together; “There was an unbelievable togetherness and a real passion towards giving the guests an unbelievable experience. The sense of achievement was incredible and it was great to see Roy, Aidan and the Chef’s be piped in to the room to acclaim from an appreciative audience”.

Our thanks to all who were involved and attended, we look forward to similar events taking place in the future.

The Celtic Chef’s who did battle this year were; Jack Stein from Cornwall and Ian Bennett from Wales and Stephane Delourme from Brittany who all took part in the first half of the competition, and Tony Singh from Scotland, Butch Buttery from The Isle of Man and Gary O’Hanlon from Ireland who all took part in the second half of the competition.

John McKenna yet again oversaw battle and talked to the chefs about cooking methods, ingredients and techniques. He also interacted with the audience reading tweets from those who could not make it but watched it live via the internet at their homes in Ireland, the UK and even Stateside! He also talked to the well-known faces at the judges’ tables, including Roy Brett, last year’s Celtic Cook Off winner from Scotland, who earlier yesterday had yet again bowled over by the kids cookery competition that he judged and special guest Tim Anderson, the winner of MasterChef 2011, who had been impressed during his involvement in food presentations and events of A Taste of West Cork Festival.

The competition saw each Celtic chef only had 30 minutes to create their masterpieces, using West Cork Produce from a list of approved West Cork Producers and a ‘Wild Card’ ingredient from their own region. A selection of seafood and meat dishes were created and presented to the judges, but there could only be one winner and this year that was our very own Gary O’Hanlon of Ireland, who created a dish of Lamb.

Congratulations Gary on a well deserved win, and congratulations and special thanks to all the chefs who took part, be it as a competitor or a judge, we look forward to welcoming you back to West Cork again – maybe for a third Celtic Cook Off?

To kick start things off today, Monday 10th September A Taste of West Cork celebrates our national treasure “The Humble Spud”. Taking place at Liss Ard from 7pm, Skibbereen reclaims the potato in an evening of debate and information as esteemed speakers, including; Eanna Ni Lamhna, Regina Sexton, Madeline Mc Keever and Eoin Lettice take part in a forum discussion to deliberate all things potato!

Keep an eye out for more potato themes too, as everyday Restaurants in Skibbereen will be highlighting the potato in their “potato” dish of the day.

On Tuesday, we here at the West Cork Hotel we welcome last year’s Celtic Cook Off winner, Roy Brett of Ondine Seafood and Shellfish Restaurant in Edinburgh, who will take over our Kennedy Restaurant for the evening in “A Taste of Ondine”. Working with our head Chef Aidan O’Driscoll and the West Cork Hotel team, Roy and his team will cook a Scottish themed meal using the very best of West Cork produce. A food lovers must, this is one not to miss. Starting at 7pm, contact us on 028 21277 for bookings.

Then on Wednesday, the event that has created much media hype, including special mention on RTE Nationwide, the Celtic Cook Off 2012 finally takes place. Starting at 7pm, the 6 Celtic Chefs taking part in this year’s competition are;  Jack Stein from Cornwall and Ian Bennett from Wales, Stephane Delourme from Brittany, Tony Singh from Scotland, Butch Buttery from The Isle of Man and Gary O’Hanlon from Ireland.

With special guests and judges; Ireland’s entrant from last year Martin Shanahan, last year’s winner Roy Brett and MasterChef 2011 winner Tim Anderson, the event, which will again be hosted and overseen by Master of Ceremonies John McKenna, is the one cooking competition that all the Celtic Chef’s want to win!

One of the must do things to do in West Cork, do not miss out on your opportunity to be at the cooking event if the year, contact us on 028 21277 for tickets. Alternatively if you can’t make it to Skibbereen for the event, don’t despair as you can watch the live streaming of the event via our website!

Prior to the competition, which took place as part of A Taste of West Cork, the 6 Celtic Chef’s from Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Cornwall, Brittany and Isle of Man visited a farm on West Cork to see where some of their produce for the competition would come from, discussed the need to use locally source food to produce award winning cookery with West Cork’s Giana Ferguson from Gubbeen and Sally Barnes from Woodcock Smokery, as well as visiting the schools cookery competition to be utterly impressed by what West Cork’s youth could produce in 1 hour 30 minutes with local produce.

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 West Cork Hotel, as 2 groups of 3 Celtic Chefs cooked-off in competition style in front of a sell out audience. However as with all competitions there could only be winner and the top Celtic Chef for 2011 was Roy Brett from Scotland with his dish of roasted Shellfish using sun burnt al from Cork and as many of the produce from the best coast of Cork as he could.

Firmly becoming one of the must do things to do in west Cork, if you missed Nationwide and want to tantalise your taste buds ahead of this year’s Celtic Cook Off on Wednesday 12th September catch up on the RTE Player: http://www.rte.ie/news/av/2012/0905/nationwide.html#&calendar=true&page=1 and the Celtic Cook off Coverage is the first 6 minutes and 35 seconds of the broadcast.

Before the fun and festivities begin though and to get you truly salivating in anticipation for this year’s events, RTE’s Nationwide programme will feature a special report on the Celtic Cook Off, with footage from the 2011 event on RTE 1 next Wednesday 5th September at 7:00pm.

A popular event in last year’s festival, the fun and informative Cooking Show – The Celtic Cook Off returns to the West Cork Hotel again this year. Taking place on Wednesday 12th September, it will yet again showcase the best of West Cork produce cooked using each Celtic Chef’s interpretations and twists, and this year the line up of top Celtic Chef’s includes; . From Scotland; Tony Singh, from Brittany; Stephane Delourme, from Isle of Man; Butch Buttery, from Ireland; Gary O’Hanlon, from Wales; Ian Bennett and from Cornwall; Jack Stein.

Tickets for this event are on sale now direct from us, so call 028 21277 now to book yours and avoid disappointment and missing out on one of the must do things to do in West Cork.

The 2011 Celtic Cook Off, took place here at the West Cork Hotel as part of A Taste of West Cork Festival and proved to be a huge success. This year we hope to repeat history as yet again we’ve attracted some of the top chefs from the Celtic regions to take part in what is becoming one of the landmark culinary events of the year.

Taking place on Wednesday 12th September, this  fun and informative Cooking Show that showcases the best of West Cork produce cooked using each Celtic Chef’s interpretations and twists, this year’s Celtic Cook Off will again take place at the West Cork Hotel and we have some fantastic Celtic Chef’s lined up. From Scotland; Tony Singh, from Brittany; Stephane Delourme, from Isle of Man; Butch Buttery, from Ireland; Gary O’Hanlon, from Wales; Ian Bennett and from Cornwall; Jack Stein. Tickets for this event are on sale now direct from us, so call 028 21277 now to book yours and avoid disappointment.

So popular and enjoyable was this event and indeed the entire A Taste of West Cork Festival last year that some of the competitors that took part in the Celtic Cook Off 2011 have volunteered to come back again this year and take part in other events during the Festival, these include Ireland’s very own Martin Shanahan, John Dixon from the Isle of Man and Arty Williams from Cornwall. What’s more last year’s Celtic Cook Off winner Roy Brett from Scotland, who will be a judge for this year’s competition, will also be involved with the Festival Schools’ Competition as well as cooking here at the West Cork Hotel on 11th September at an event titled; A Taste of Ondine, which will be based on the menu from his award-winning Edinburgh Restaurant using West Cork produce.

So set a reminder, set your televisions to record or just remember to tune in to RTE’s Nationwide on Wednesday 5th September.

Devoted to highlighting the good food ethos and combining this with all the many attractions of the immediate surroundings, the A Taste of West Cork festival is a welcome treat for both food lovers and visitors alike and is becoming one of the must do things to do in west Cork. Year-on-year as the festival hits town expect to get caught up in the buzz and vibe throughout the town as Restaurants and businesses will be alive with imaginative ways to celebrate the regions proud food heritage.

Throughout the week there shall be numerous workshops, tastings and demonstrations on all elements of international cuisine with the full calendar of events laid out and many eating establishments playing their part. There will be food markets, food-tastings, children’s events, guided walks, talks and demonstrations, as well as cookery competitions with special dinners, brunches and banquets.

Here at the West Cork Hotel we are playing our own part in this festival with our second running of the popular Celtic Cook Off cookery competition that is back due to popular demand. This special event, which is sure to yet again be one of the many highlights of the festival is happening on Wednesday 12 September 2012. Tickets can be purchased direct from us and are selling out fast to place make sure you book yours now to avoid disappointment by calling us direct on 00 353 28 21277.

An event that proved to be a hit last year with all involved, tickets for this year’s Celtic Cook Off are now available and can be purchased directly from us here at the West Cork Hotel.

Selling out fast, tickets  up until 10th September are just €15 (please note, from 10th September tickets will be €20), so make sure you book yours now to avoid disappointment by calling us direct on 00353 28 21277 to ensure that you will be at the much anticipated culinary event of the year that has attracted the following top named chef’s; Tony Singh from Scotland, Stephane Delourme from Brittany, Butch Buttery from the Isle of Man, Gary O’Hanlon from Ireland, Shaun Hill from Wales and Jack Stein from Cornwall.