Look Back to Ireland’s Win in the Celtic Cook Off 2012

Attracting an audience of over 200 food enthusiasts all of whom were packed in the Ballroom of our Hotel West Cork the Celtic Cook Off 2012 saw six top chefs representing Brittany, Cornwall, Ireland, Isle of Man, Scotland and Wales do battle in a cook-off style competition to create their favoured dish using West Cork produce. 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 from Longford seemed more than delighted, saying: ‘I’ve never won anything like this in my life!’

The Celtic Cook off was a huge success, taking in locally sourced produce  available in our restaurant in Skibbereen. For hotels in County Cork or places to stay in West Cork, the West Cork Hotel is the ideal choice.