Saturday Night was a culinary comedic masterpiece with Karl Spain & Rachel Doyle from the award-winning Arboretum and Ed Cahill of Tullys Bar paired with the comedic genius of Gearoid Farrelly battling it out in a “Ready Steady Cook” style cookoff using local produce provided by Carlow Farmers Market. Team Doyle was pronounced the winner by Chef Adrian who was MC for the event with a mouth watering masterpiece of local steak with a selection of festive accompaniments. The produce was provided by Carlow Farmers Market to showcase the variety of farm to fork products available to County Carlow customers. 

The Culinary Christmas Events kicked off on Thursday Night with Fishy Fishy’s Martin Shanahan sharing his words of wisdom for festive fishy dishes with the help of several audience members getting first-hand experience and the opportunity of tasting the mouth-watering wonders prepared by Martin. Friday Night was the turn of family favourite Rachel Allen who delighted, with a selection of dishes that would make any Christmas Festive Feast a treat for everyone . Saturday Workshops for the younger family members by Kelly Lou Cakes in the art of Cup Cake Decorating and Bean & Goose who helped prepare Chocolate Truffles for all who attended. Saturday Night was the showcase Cook Off Event

Over 550 people from around the South East attended workshops and cookery shows as part of Carlow Culinary Christmas which also featured an ongoing display from Carlow Farmers Market and their 15 members.

Speaking about the events , Kathleen Holohan , Chief Executive with Carlow County Council said “we are delighted to be able to support this project in partnership with the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine as part of the food & drink sector development programmes” ,Holohan continued to say “in 2019 we will be bringing to the market new supports and programmes which are designed to facilitate opportunities for the Food & Drink Sector. Also in 2019 we continue to roll our EU project Catalyst in partnership with IT Carlow & Tipperary County Council and work with funders like Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine & Enterprise Ireland in supporting this key sector”, Holohan concluded by saying “the importance of our innovation in designing supports is essential in order to place County Carlow as an ideal place to locate , start , develop and grow any food or drink enterprise and we will continue to work in this fashion”.

Carlow Culinary Christmas is part of County Carlow – A Festive Family Festival which is a showcase of over 100 community, business and public led events. Speaking about the opportunity for working in collaboration with the Food & Drink Sector , Kieran Comerford , Head of Enterprise with Carlow County Council’s – Local Enterprise Office said “the food and drink sector are a significant contributor to the County Carlow enterprise eco-system and it is essential that we support this sector in a meaningful way in order to assist in creating conditions for companies to reach their full potential” , Comerford continued to say “the Local Enterprise Offices are run on an ethos of #making it happen and we have a responsibility to design interventions which bridge the gap between enterprises and opportunities which in turn create local jobs” , “our supports are about supporting companies to become Lean , understand competitive challenges and selling and telling the story of their product” ,Comerford continued to say “with uncertainty around  Brexit it’s important we design robust interventions and our focus in 2019 will change in terms of the Food & Drink sector in particular around trade , innovation and international opportunities”.

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For further information contact Kieran Comerford on 086-8252037 e-mail kcomerford@carlowcoco.ie