Northern Ireland beef chosen for historic banquet in Dublin
Kettyle Irish Foods in Northern Ireland provided the main course for the historic State Banquet during the Queen's official visit to the Republic of Ireland.
The meat processor, based at Lisnaskea in County Fermanagh, provided dry-aged rib-eye beef, for the three-course gala dinner held in Dublin Castle. Kettyle is part of Linden Foods of Dungannon, County Tyrone, one of the UK and Ireland's leading meat businesses.
Another Northern Ireland company, Ditty's Irish Oatcakes, from County Londonderry, provided biscuits for the cheeseboard.
Kettyle Irish Foods, now a major supplier of dry-aged beef to leading hotels and restaurants across the British Isles, was commissioned to provide the succulent steaks by Ross Lewis of Chapter One restaurant in Dublin, the banquet's Executive Head Chef, and With Taste, Dublin, which was responsible for overall catering at the event, hosted by Mary McAleese, President of Ireland and attended by Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny and David Cameron, the UK Prime Minister.
The rib-eye, described as Rib of Slaney Valley Beef, was sourced from a farm in County Wexford and was served with ox cheek and tongue with smoked champ potato and fried spring cabbage, new season broad beans and carrots with pickled and wild garlic leaf.
Kettyle Irish Foods said: "We were thrilled to be invited to supply our successful dry-aged beef to such an important and historic event. We took responsibility for selecting the animals, supervising the processing of the meat at our plant in Slaney and then brought it to our Lisnaskea factory for our unique maturing process.
"We've supplied products to Ross Lewis at Chapter One and With Taste over many years and were delighted to have been given the opportunity to provide our beef for the State Banquet. All the beef was hand selected and cut to the chef's specifications"
Kettyle Irish Foods, also a major supplier of dry-aged beef to leading UK and Irish retailers including Marks and Spencer, has seen sales of its cured beef increase by 85 per cent over the past year.
The company has the only purpose built dry-aging facility in Europe. It sources from grass-fed Angus and Hereford herds in Northern Ireland and the Republic and then allows the beef to mature 'on the bone' for up to 35 days.
M&S listed Kettyle's dry-aged fillet, sirloin and rib-eye steaks in its premium Special Reserve category in all its food stores across the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland.
Kettyle Irish Foods was launched in 2004 as a specialist in the provision of high quality beef targeted at the food service sector, particularly high-end restaurants, in Great Britain, the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.