When it comes to food awards, the Irish Food Writers Guild Awards are all about celebrating indigenous food producers and original thinkers who create, make and share great Irish produce. Not only is this produce for us to enjoy, these companies are also helping to raise our international reputation when it comes to food and drink. Interestingly, many of the award-winning products display a noticeable lack of additives.

Aoife Carrigy, chairp of the Irish Food Writers Guild (IFWG) said: “Unprocessed, naturally sourced ingredients are the foundation upon which Ireland’s reputation for culinary excellence is built. Each producer uses traditional processes to preserve the integrity and the inherent flavour of the ingredients that they are working with.”

So what are the ingredients and products to watch out for? One of the top food awards went to Connemara Smokehouse Smoked Mackerel, Co Galway. Hot-smoked and delicately flavoured, the company has been run by the Roberts family since 1979, with Graham and his wife, Saoirse, managing all aspects from their remote location on the west coast.

Who doesn’t love a bit of bacon? Baltimore Bacon from Co Cork was also celebrated for its smoked and unsmoked bacon and ham, all of which are produced naturally and free from nitrates and additives. Interestingly, Nathan Wall only became a free-range pig farmer in 2014, having worked as a specialist plasterer before that.

For that zing in your life, check out Wildwood Balsamics range from Co Mayo. Another change of career story, Fionntán Gogarty was known for his painting, but since 2016 he’s running Wildwood Balsamics. He is now supplying to more than 20 stores nationwide.

In the drinks category, Cockagee Pure Irish Keeved Cider, Co Meath, scored top marks for its revival of cider traditions, while the organisation award went to the McNally family farm in Co Dublin, where Jenny McNally has been selling organic farm produce at Dublin markets for over 20 years.

Inagh Farmhouse Cheese (St Tola Irish Goat Cheese), Co Clare, won the environmental award for the comprehensive sustainability programme it has been implementing for nearly two decades. There was a new award this year, the Community Food Award, presented with the support of Slow Food Ireland. This went to Sligo Global Kitchen, that hosts communal meals for people living locally, a proactive way of building links by facilitating people to celebrate each other’s food culture.

Finally, the lifetime achievement was well deserved and presented to the Ferguson Family of Gubbeen Farmhouse in Co Cork. They may be best known for the exceptional cheese produced on their 250-acre coastal farm, just outside Schull in west Cork, but add their meats and oat range into the mix and it is a full celebration of Irish food.

Galway festival

Food festival season is just kicking off and one of the year’s first celebrations is always the Galway Food Festival, which takes place right throughout the Easter weekend from 29 March until 2 April.

This year the theme of the festival is all about ‘planting seeds’, which relates to the origin of our food. It’s also about planting the seeds of education and awareness, the seeds of economic growth and development and getting back to our roots.

There will be a whole host of engaging talks, top-class workshops, a wide variety of tours, as well as in-house events, all of which will encourage people to reconnect with where their food comes from, learn more about what nature can provide for us and how we can connect to our communities by developing the relationship between food and culture.

One event we really want to check out is Breaking Bread, a unique event that uses our shared love of food to showcase and celebrate the varied and diverse cultural groups that form the bedrock of Galway’s vibrant modern community. Focusing on themes of inclusion, acceptance and collaboration, Breaking Bread will feature exhibitions of culture and food by participating groups, including mouth-watering traditional and modern dishes to taste and share with the public.

Also returning is the hugely successful Halla Bia. Huge numbers visited Galway’s first indoor food market last year, which cast a spotlight on a wide range of produce from almost 30 indigenous food and drink producers from along the European Region of Gastronomy.

To view the programme of events visit www.galwayfoodfestival.com

The Eden Café

Fancy a taste of west Cork, but can’t get beyond the Cork city boundaries? The café at Dwyer’s Electrical on Forge Hill in Cork has been a busy stop off point for a tasty bite to eat for a number of years, but things are getting a re-vamp at the moment, specifically the menu. The new café, now called Eden, will have an extensive brunch, lunch and salad bar with a range of homemade pastries and cakes.

On the road to Kinsale and the wider west Cork area, elements of the coastal town can be seen right throughout the menu. In the morning enjoy porridge smothered in west Cork cream or smashed avocado on sourdough bread with feta, chilli and basil oil, topped with a poached egg. If you’re looking for an exceptionally good chowder, Kinsale’s famous Man Friday’s chowder will be appearing daily on the menu, as will its brown bread. You might be torn though, as Declan Ryan’s Arbutus sourdough bread is also on the menu. Oh the choices.