Hi everyone and happy new year to you all. We are hugely excited about our 2022 awards and have some dates and new categories to announce.
The awards will take place in mid-October in Dublin. Entries will open on April 1st and will close on May 31st. We will accept entries in all categories that have been published in print, online or podcasted between the dates of May 31st 2021 and May 31st 2022.
We have two new categories this year for entrants: a Food Instagram/TikTok Award and a Culinary Student Award. The former is for outstanding accounts on one or both platforms that communicate on food sourcing, cooking or food culture. The Culinary Student Award is a cookery writing award for students studying in the food space. Further details on these categories will be on the website soon.
We look forward to working with our esteemed judges from 2021 and some new faces will also be joining us. We are delighted to see UK’s premier beer magazine Ferment commissioning Irish food and drink writers for their edition on Ireland coming out soon.
This opportunity came directly from our first awards as Ferment editor Richard Croasdale is one of our judges. It shows how powerful networks in writing and journalism are for writers, editors and food producers to tell their story, both here and internationally.
It’s also wonderful to see several new Irish publications on food being launched soon. Martin Ruffley and Anna King are the authors of a new book Food and the Journey of Life which will be published on the 31st January. Also exciting are the four new books coming from the Blasta Books stable - the first two from authors Lily Ramirez-Foran and Gastro Gays (Russell Alford and Patrick Hanlon). Big congratulations and thanks to Blasta Books' Kristin Jensen for this great opportunity for Irish food writers.
It's also wonderful to see hospitality open up again without restrictions and we wish everyone in the food industry a happy and healthy 2022. Keep an eye on the website and if you are thinking of entering our awards, look at the categories and decide where your work fits best. We will have more details on category parameters, a FAQ section and information on the two new awards on the website soon. In the meantime, best wishes to all our followers and supporters,
Suzanne and Paul