Awards and Reviews 

The Restaurant 29 December 2011

Rugby pundits Tom McGurk and George Hook battled it out to improve their 3 star ratings

 
 
George made use of Woodcock Smokery smoked haddock for his starter; George is obviously a great fan, critic Tom Doorley simply said: ‘Sally Barnes is the greatest fish smoker in the country.’

With the critics’ votes at one course each for the contestants, it was Woodcock Smokery’s smoked haddock that clinched a win for George!

 
 
See for yourself here


Rachel Allen’s Easy Meals on RTE - 22 December 2011

Smoked salmon and chives fishcakes

 
 
Rachel visited Woodcock Smokery here in West Cork, talked to Joleine and Sally Barnes about how they produce award-winning smoked salmon and shows you how to prepare her own version of smoked salmon fishcakes. So good, it’s not just for Christmas!

 
 
See for yourself here


Great Taste Awards 2010

 

Three Woodcock Smokery products received Awards at the Great Taste Awards in London this year:

 

Wild Smoked Salmon - Three Stars

 

Smoked Mackerel - One Star

 

Hot Smoked Albacore Tuna - One Star

 


Woodcock’s Wild Smoked Salmon was also nominated for Best Irish Speciality Award.

 


The one, two are three star ratings are established on the premise that a one star is a perfect food or drink, a two star is absolutely sublime and three star is that moment you turn to the person next to you and exclaim ‘Wow! You must try this, it’s amazing!”

 

The 2010 GTAs have seen even more products entered than ever before. 6021 in total have been blind-tasted, tested and discussed over an intense, two-month judging period by 350 judges, comprising food writers, chefs, deli and farm shop owners, food producers and buyers.

 

The Guild of Fine Food’s Bob Farrand commented of this year’s entries:

 

“It’s so exciting to see the standards of food and drink in these islands go from strength to strength, year after year, proving that for those who enjoy great food - it’s there to be discovered.”

 

Farrand continued, “We’ve worked hard to ensure our judging process is as robust as possible. The judging teams are balanced in terms of experience, background and even gender and every Gold Award winning entry has been independently proven to be of the highest standard.”


















The Great Tasting for 2010 under way in the Food Hall at Fortnum & Mason's.

Other winners in the Republic are, Bewley’s, Java Republic

Roasting Company and Traditional Cheese Co in Dublin, Healys Honey in Cork, All Things Nice in Wexford, Oakpath Foods and Aibp Cahir in Tipperary, Kenmare Select in Kerry, O’Donohue’s Bakery in Offaly, Feedia Fine Foods in Louth, and Irish Yoghurts in Cork.


Great Taste Awards 2009 - Best Irish Speciality Award
& Special Judges Commendation

Woodcock Smokery achieved another resounding success in the annual Great Taste Awards held on Monday 7 September 2009 in Fortnum and Mason’s Food Hall. Sally Barnes not only won Best Irish Speciality Award for her wild smoked salmon but also gained a Special Commendation from the judges.

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Maria Stokes of Bord Bia, sponsors of the Best Irish Speciality Award, made the award to Sally Barnes and Richard Corrigan rushed over from Bentley's Restaurant to present it to her.


The Great Taste Awards is organised annually by the Guild of Fine Food with more than 100 leading chefs, cookery writers, retail buyers and other food & drink specialists judging thousands of foods in a process lasting several months.

The best products – most of which are available in delis and farm shops – are awarded one, two or three gold stars in a scheme that echoed the Michelin star scheme for restaurants, with regional and national awards also being presented. 

September saw the final judging of the “best of the best” at Fortnum & Mason, which also sponsored the Supreme Champion trophy. 

A three-star gold is the highest level of award any producer can aspire to and is recognised as the definitive independent accreditation of quality.


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The chefs, cookery writers and celebrity foodies on this year’s final judging panel included TV chef Antony Worrall Thompson, restaurateur Mark Hix and former Masterchef winner Thomasina Miers. Chairman of judges Simon Burdess, Fortnums’ trading director, announced a special commendation for Woodcock Smokery’s wild smoked salmon.

The judges’ deliberations were broadcast live on TV screens to an audience of over 400 food producers and buyers as they sampled some of 2009’s Great Taste Awards three-star gold-winners on display in Fortnum’s famous Food Hall.

GTAstairs

In the autumn of 2008, news about gold winning foods reached a massive 35 million consumers. Reports appeared in The Sunday Times, The Guardian and The Independent. Winners featured on The Alan Titchmarsh Show, UKTV's Market Kitchen and on BBC Radio 2's Chris Evans Drivetime Show.

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Great Taste Awards Supreme Champion 2006

   
This highly prestigious competition involved eight full days of blind tasting by over 450 judges of over 4,500 food products, from which 530 ‘Gold’ certificates were awarded for excellence.  









These were judged for a second time and whittled down to a shortlist of the best 28 foods which were then blind tasted for a third time by a team of 12 experts from the food world. Judges included Richard Johnson, food writer from The Guardian and presenter of BBC’s Full on Food, Evening Standard’s Charles Campion, celebrity chef Giancarlo Caldesi from BBC2’s Return to Tuscany and Jennifer Sharp, restaurant reviewer for Harpers Bazaar.

The unanimous winner was Woodcock Smokery’s Irish wild smoked salmon which won Best Speciality and Best Fresh Product, before being awarded the Fortnum & Mason Trophy for Great Taste Awards 2006 Supreme Champion.

Judge Duncan Ackery from Tate Catering commented: “It was a very difficult decision but Woodcock’s salmon was just exquisite.”

Bob Farrand, National Director of the Guild of Fine Food Retailers who hosted the awards commented: “The Great Taste Awards reflect what is happening in the fine food halls, delicatessens and farm shops throughout the UK and we have tasted some fantastic gourmet delicacies from all over the world.”

On the night itself, Sally Barnes said: “We’re absolutely delighted but we are in shock – it hasn’t sunk in yet! Winning a Great Taste Award is the ultimate recognition and is a fantastic help when promoting our product. So much hard work has gone into developing and perfecting these products – to win is just brilliant.”


The Clatter of Forks and Spoons – 2008

  "Sally Barnes at Woodcock Smokery in Skibbereen is one of those rare, inspirational human beings you just take your hat off to. Sally is a law unto herself. Such an intelligent woman, with a profound understanding of the smoke, but what sets her apart is her absolute refusal to smoke anything other than wild fish….. Such are her ethics and perfectionism that she won’t even use fish caught on the seven-day boats, because she won’t smoke a fish that is over twenty-four hours old. 'If a fish stays on ice out on the boats I can’t use it. It spoils before we can finish our process,' she says.



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sally’s whole ethos is that the best things take time. At the smokery each fish is treated as an individual, hand-filleted and dry-salted for the right amount of time to suit its size and fat content. After that it is smoked slowly. Again, for how long is down to the temperature and humidity. After the first stage of smoking, it is pinboned again, by hand, and put back into the kiln again to finish smoking. Some of the salmon is kept back and matured for three months before being sold." 

© The Clatter of Forks and Spoons by Richard Corrigan, Fourth Estate, 2008.

Richard Corrigan is one of our most respected and outspoken chefs. He has been a key pioneer in the rehabilitation of British and Irish food, a champion of small producers, and is dedicated to rediscovering and reinterpreting the traditional and often wild foodstuffs of these islands. To order a copy of this book visit the Skibbereen Bookshop

 


Bridgestone Irish Food Guide

   

"Sally Barnes won the Supreme Award at the Great Taste Awards in 2006. That tells you all you need to know about the distinctiveness, deliciousness and utter singularity of this most gifted fish smoker’s levels of creativity: line the Woodcock smoked fish, whether haddock, tuna, sprats, salmon, whatever, up alongside 4,500 other artisan foods and the simple, pure magic of Sally’s wild smoked salmon will put everything else in second place.

Woodcock is the quintessential artisan, Slow Food, hand-made, West Cork food, a true icon."  




 

 

 

 



Corrigan Knows Food

Top Chef Richard Corrigan visits Woodcock Smokery in West Cork for the RTE programme Corrigan Knows Food.

Apologies in advance for the awful picture quality though, have to say that’s RTE not us!

www.rte.ie/tv/corriganknowsfood/20070723.html
 
© The Woodcock Smokery 2011
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