Blas na hÉireann Awards give taste of our best and brightest

Imagination and daring meet the finest home-grown produce at the annual Kerry event celebrating Irish food, writes Graham Clifford

Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed; Geraldine Emerson of Stonewell Rós Cider, which won the Supreme Champion award; and Artie Clifford, awards chairperson, at the Blas na hÉireann/Irish Food Awards in Dingle

Where else but Dingle in the fall? As the long summer evenings gave way to the crisper autumnal days, the ninth annual Blas na hÉireann Irish Food Awards were savoured by visitors to the scenic south west.

They were all there: the judges, the artisan producers, the larger food and drink entities, the buyers and, of course, the tasting public, who flocked in their tens of thousands to taste the very best in ...