Hello everyone,
We are delighted to announce the winners of our awards for 2021!
It was a fantastic evening in Fallon & Byrne and The Merrion Hotel, which also hosted seven of our overseas judges who came to attend the awards and to write about food and drink in Ireland for publications in the UK and further afield.
It was wonderful to see Ireland's food and drink community come together to support food writers, journalists and content makers. We owe a big thanks to our sponsors without who the awards could not have happened:
The National Dairy Council, James Whelan Butchers, Aldi Ireland, Whelehans Wines, Pestle + Mortar Sauces, Bord Bia, Brú Brewery, Drummond House Farm, Safco Fine Foods, Invest Northern Ireland, Powerscourt Distillery, Gather & Gather, Hussey’s Fruit and Vegetables, The Irish Curry Awards, Ardkeen Quality Food Store and Fallon & Byrne. Also kindly supported by Tourism Ireland and hotel partner The Merrion Hotel.
The awards evening exceeded our expectations and were so enjoyable for everyone. Our finalists were so supportive of the winners, and there is always next year to enter again. Thank you to everyone who entered, you all made it a competition of great strength and depth. As a result, the standard of work that won was really high and commented on so favourably by our judges. We will be open for entries for our 2022 awards in the spring; for news on dates do sign up for our mailouts.
In the meantime, we will keep supporting Irish food writers, food media, our sponsors and encouraging high standards in work produced on food and drink in Ireland.
Thanks & best wishes,
Suzanne and Paul
The Irish Food Writing Award Winners
1. Food Podcast Award winner – Spice Bags Podcast from Dee Laffan, Mei Chin and Blanca Valencia This award is sponsored by Safco Fine Foods and judged by BBC radio broadcaster on food and drinks Nigel Barden. 2. Writing on Sustainability in Irish Food Award – winner: Michelle Darmody for work in The Examiner This award is sponsored by the National Dairy Council. The work submitted for this really important award was judged by Rene Redzepi, chef and founder of Noma restaurant in Copenhagen and Sustainability food and travel writer Catherine Mack 3. Restaurant Writing Award – winner: Joe McNamee for work in The Examiner This award is sponsored by Fallon and Byrne. Judged by Tom Parker Bowles and Xanthe Clay. 4. Food Photography Award This award was sponsored by Hussey Veg and this award has two categories both of which were judged by Conde Nast photographer Joann Pai. Professional category winner – Al Higgins Amateur category winner – Rosie Morgan 5. Online Writing Award winner – Caroline Hennessy for www.Bibliocook.com This award is kindly sponsored by Pestle + Mortar. UK food broadcaster Andy Clarke judged these entries and was looking at not just blogs but also Twitter, Instagram and how the writers used social media platforms 6. Writing on Irish Food Producers Award winner: Katy McGuinness for work in the Irish Independent This award is sponsored by Aldi Ireland who work with small Irish food producers through their Grow with Aldi programme. The judges in this category were Mark Hix and German-based food writer Christie Dietz 7. Investigative Writing on Food Award winner: Niall Sargeant for work published in Noteworthy.ie This award is sponsored by Drummond House Garlic. These entries were judged by UK food journalist Joanna Blythman 8. Emerging Voice in Irish Food Writing Award winner: Maeve L’Estrange for work published in the Dublin Inquirer This is a really important category as it is to reward newer voices in Irish writing on food and drink. We teamed up with the members of the Irish Food Writers Guild on this award who judged it 9. Cookery Writing Award winner: Lilly Higgins for work in the Irish Times Sponsored by Ardkeen Grocer - The judges of this award were Trish Deseine and French Elle Magazine writer Esterelle Payany 10. Wine Writing Award winner: Aoife Carrigy – The Irish Independent Sponsored by Whelehans Wines and judged by Fiona Beckett and Marie-Dominique Bradford of Trois Fois Vins in Paris 11. Spirits Writing Award winner: Oisin Davis for work published in Food and Wine Magazine This award was sponsored by Powerscourt Distillery and judged by food and drink writers Colman Andrews from New York and Rachel McCormack from Scotland 12. Beer Writing Award winner: Breandan Kearney for work published on Good Beer Hunting The aim of this award is to encourage and popularise more writing on beer in Ireland. It is sponsored by Bru Brewery and was judged by drinks writers Robb Walsh and Richard Croasdale from UK beer magazine “Ferment”. 13. Food Writing Award winner – Corinna Hardgrave This award is sponsored by Bord Bia and was judged by American food author Adrian Miller and British author and food writer Sophie Grigson 14. Writing on International Cuisines in Ireland winner Mei Chin for work in The Irish Times and The Times (UK) newspapers Sponsored by the Irish Curry Awards and judged by British food writer Anjula Devi 15. Magazine or Food Supplement Award winner: Food and Wine Magazine This award is sponsored by Invest NI was judged by UK food writers Charlotte Pike and Claire Finney 16. Outstanding Achievement in food and drink writing award This award was presented posthumously to wine writer and broadcaster Tomás Clancy. It was accepted by his wife Claire Kearney and sons Tomas and Liam Clancy Sponsored by James Whelan butchers 17. Cookbook of The Year Award winner: “FX Buckley the Dublin Steakhouse” by Katy McGuinness and Stephen Buckley Sponsored by Gather &Gather and judged by Jay Rayner and Dr Annie Gray of BBC Radio 4’s The Kitchen Cabinet
The awards, established by Suzanne Campbell with Paul O’Connor, are kindly sponsored by The National Dairy Council, James Whelan Butchers, Aldi Ireland, Whelehans Wines, Pestle + Mortar Sauces, Bord Bia, Brú Brewery, Drummond House Farm, Safco Fine Foods, Invest Northern Ireland, Powerscourt Distillery, Gather & Gather, Hussey’s Fruit and Vegetables, The Irish Curry Awards, Ardkeen Quality Food Store and Fallon & Byrne. Also kindly supported by Tourism Ireland and hotel partner The Merrion Hotel. The Irish Food Writing Awards were established to recognise and celebrate the high quality of food and drink writing from throughout the island of Ireland, across print, broadcast and online. In all categories, entries were accepted from the nominees themselves, or by a third party and were open to writers, journalists, bloggers and photographers. Twitter: @Irish_Writing #IFWA21
Instagram: @IrishFoodWritingAwards
