Taste the Greatness of our food and drink at Balmoral
Article written by Food NI CEO Michele Shirlow, featured in Farming Life
We invite you to savour a sample of our vision; Taste the Greatness, Food NI’s recently launched five year strategy. Our mission is “to energise and inspire our vibrant food and drink industry by telling our food and drink stories in the most impactful, far reaching and compelling way”. The FoodNI Pavilion at our four-day showcase in Balmoral Park is an excellent example of this commitment being bigger and better than ever before.
Visitors to our pavilion will have opportunities to meet and talk to talk to award winning lo
cal producers and to sample and purchase the very best of our food and drink.
What’s changed since last year? In addition to more than 100 food and drink producers showcasing thousands of local products, we have introduced a Taste Theatre where visitors can sample and hear the story behind local produce. Once again we have a team of our chefs demonstrating how best to enjoy our food and drink at home. Jean Christophe-Novelli, the international chef and culinary trend setter, will be making his debut in the Food Pavilion on Saturday. He has already announced plans to open a named restaurant in Belfast, the first in Ireland.
I was delighted when he accepted our invitation to join the culinary programme at Balmoral as many of you will have read in the media his family have recently faced challenging health problems. He will be showcasing his great expertise and knowledge in the sessions on Saturday. You can count on Food NI to introduce him to some of the superb produce available here from local suppliers. It will be a marvellous boost internationally for our food and drink to take pride place on his menus in his planned restaurant at the City Quays in Belfast Harbour Estate.
Our products, of course, have already captured the attention of other leading chefs in Britain such as Heston Blumenthal, Marcus Wareing, Richard Corrigan, Mark Hix, Nigella Lawson, James Martin and Angela Hartnett.
Our food pavilion is an example of Food NI’s commitment to align and showcase our producers on a world-class platform and to embrace state-of-the-art digital technology. We want existing and potential customers to become fully familiar with the breadth of the food and drink offering here.
As Taste the Greatness states: “As an industry, we’ve come on leaps and bounds in a relatively short space of time, but there’s still work to be done. Many of our wonderful food and drink goings-on are still under the radar and unconnected.” We want the world to appreciate the “simple and fundamental truth: that the produce from Northern Ireland is truly great”.
To ensure even greater success abroad, the industry requires the continuing support from consumers and retailers across Northern Ireland. Year and Food and Drink in 2016 undoubtedly increased awareness among consumers, retailers and local authorities. Councils across Northern Ireland are making an invaluable contribution by organising food festivals and other events. And many of the events launched in recent years, such as Derry/Strabane’s LegenDerry Food Festival, the Glens and Causeway Coast Council’s Coleraine and Ballycastle markets, Ards and North Down’s award-winning Comber Farmers Market, and Armagh, Banbridge and Craigavon’s Heartland Food Programme, are going from strength to strength.
They are helping the food and drink industry here to achieve key objectives in Taste the Greatness by creating a vibrant local market for Northern Ireland food and drink. More consumers buying our produce, and growing our reputation as a globally recognised food region, will boost sales here and abroad. Greater success for food and drink at home will strengthen our most important industry, support the wellbeing of rural communities in particular, and lead to greater employment. To be part of it visit the Food Pavilion at Balmoral and taste the greatness.
