Entries for this year’s Irish Food Awards, Blas na hÉireann, will close on Friday, May 20 and this year all roads lead to the pretty seaside town of Dingle as it gears up to host the first in-person Blas na hÉireann awards event in two years.
Regarded by many as a key event in the Irish food industry’s calendar, Blas na hÉireann, like so many others, celebrated its finalists and winners online over the past two years, leaving a significant gap in the food and drink calendar. This year will see the welcome return of this important weekend of celebrations, with the great and good of the Irish food and drinks scene descending on Dingle once more for the weekend on Friday, September 30.
The awards seek to reward the very best, not just in their category, but to highlight the best of local as well, including an award for Best in Mayo which is supported by LEO Mayo. The head of enterprise, LEO Mayo, John Magee said: "LEO Mayo is delighted to support the Blas na hÉireann awards again this year.
"These awards highlight the high-quality food being produced throughout the country. We regularly work with local producers across the food sector offering training, mentoring, and financial support to help grow and scale their business. This year, we are encouraging local businesses to take part in these awards as an opportunity to promote their products and reach a wider audience."
"We’re absolutely delighted to be planning our awards in Dingle this year," says Blas na hÉireann chairman, Artie Clifford. "We were lucky to have been able to move quickly in 2020, and while we were in a position to run our judging throughout the summer months in the last two years, we weren’t able to welcome everyone together for the networking and awards.
"We are proud of the celebrations that we hosted online, and the awards were a huge success, managing to highlight the best of Irish food and drink during a really difficult time. However the one thing that was said over and over to us was that people really missed being in Dingle, so we can’t wait to welcome our Blas family home this year and celebrate our 2022 finalists in person."
This is the 15th year of Blas na hÉireann with last year seeing a huge increase in entries and many new producers entering the food awards for the first time. The blind-tasting judging system, which was designed by The School of Food and Nutritional Science at UCC under the supervision of Prof Joe Kerry and the team at Blas, is now recognised as an industry gold standard worldwide.
Entries for Blas na hÉireann 2022 are open until May 20. The entry fee is €80 per entry (ex VAT ).
