UK Taste Experts showcase Northern Irish Beef at Gala Dinner
Northern Irish beef took pride of place at the gala dinner in London hosted by the UK Guild of Fine Food in the five-star Royal Garden Hotel.
The Guild chose salt aged oven roasted sirloin of Euro Angus Irish beef from Hannan Meats in Moira, county Down as the main course in the dinner to announce the winners of the Great Taste Awards 2013, sponsored by Harrods.
The beef that was enjoyed by around 200 VIPs was 36-day dry-aged on the bone in Hannan's unique Himalayan salt chamber, the world's biggest facility of its kind for aging beef.
The choice of the Hannan beef, a three-star winner in this year's Great Taste Awards and listed in the Top 50 Foods by the guild, showcased the outstanding quality and provenance from Northern Ireland's meat processors, one of the region's biggest food and drink sectors.
Red meat will be featured at the Anuga food exhibition in Cologne next month on the Northern Ireland Naturally stand, is a £1 billion sector which sells its products in the global marketplace.
The quality of the products from a predominantly grass-fed sector is underpinned by superb animal welfare techniques and provenance.
Hannan Meats sourced its meat from two networks of Northern Irish farmers - Euro Angus and Glenarm Shorthorn - which ensures the provenance of the products aged in the company's salt chamber at its premised in Moira, county Down.
The Northern Irish beef was acclaimed by Steve Monkley, executive chef at the Royal Garden Hotel, as the 'best ingredient for a meal he had ever worked with' when he spoke to guests at the Great Taste dinner.
Hannan Meats had a record five steak products listed by UK Guild in this year's Top 50 Foods and one, rack of Glenarm shorthorn steak, reached the Top 15 in the final stages of the annual competition. The other Hannan products listed in the Top 50 were
Seasoned Fiorentina T-bone steak
Salt-aged Euro Angus T-bone steak
Salt-aged Seasoned Fiorentina T-bome
Salt-aged Euro Angus Cote de Boeuf
The gala dinner also featured two others products from Northern Ireland which gained three-stars in the Great Taste Awards 2013. The products were: Ewing Seafood's tradition pale smoked cod loins and McCartney's Butcher's mushroom, leek and smoked garlic tart.
The cod, from Northern Ireland's oldest fishmonger, featured among the canapés as a tartlet. McCartney's tart was featured in the anti-pasta platter.
A beef dish created by Simon Dougan of the Yellow Door Deli in Portadown was also named as the new Deli and Farmshop Signature Dish of 2013 for his braised Irish beef cheek and potato pie. The award winning beef for the dish was sourced from Hannan Meats.