Over 200 people were treated to the experience of Fulvio’s Fantastic Festive Feast at a recent event in Visual hosted by Carlow County Council & Carlow Tourism, and MC’ed by TV3’s Colette Fitzpatrick. The event aimed to showcase Carlow’s wonderful food & drink offering and Fulvio prepared a festive feast aimed to energise the Christmas Tables around the County.

The Master of Ceremonies for the event was TV3’s Colette Fitzpatrick who enticed the panel to share in their festive tips and stories aimed to make a perfect Christmas experience. The panel made up of Seamus O’Hara from Carlow Brewing, Alan Foley from the Step House Hotel, Mary White from Blackstairs Eco-Trail and Kieran Comerford of the Local Enterprise Office.

Commenting about the event Fulvio said “Locally grown food is full of flavour and eating locally is eating seasonally and supports the local economy and is better for the environment. Here in Ireland we enjoy rolling countryside and lush pasture land resulting in a country boasting an impressive collection of quality food and drink producers. Carlow is a perfect example of this and this wonderful initiative demonstrates good practice as well as supplying a great resource to be replicated over and over again”

Kathleen Holohan, Chief Executive of Carlow County Council said “As part of the council’s role in economic development it is essential that we work in a strategic way to support specific sectors and this showcase was about spreading the message of buying and supporting our local Food & Drink producers as part of our business community ”. Holohan continued to say that “Buying Irish and local is the smart choice and will ensure jobs for farmers and food companies in your local community. This guarantees that they can continue to deliver quality, wholesome Irish food to the consumer.” 

The event was funded as part of an overall Food Tourism project funded by the Department of Agriculture, Food & the Marine under CEDRA and co-ordinated in partnership with Carlow Tourism. Cllr. John Murphy – Chairperson of Carlow Tourism said “Carlow Tourism was delighted to be involved with this project”, Murphy noted that “One in seven Irish jobs is in the agri-food industry, with farming, the food sector and related service industries delivering over 300,000 jobs, while exports contribute almost €10.5bn to the Irish economy and it is essential that we support our County Carlow Food & Tourism sector”.