Hotel & Catering Review October 2016

OCTOBER 2016

DINING IN THE USA

MATT MURPHY'S STATESIDE STINT

JOURNEY OF DISCOVERY

NEW LOOK CONRAD REVEALED

Excellence

AT THE ESTATE MOUNT JULIET REIGNS SUPREME IN LYRATH

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Escape into a world of relaxed elegance while enjoying one of the most breathtaking views in Ireland in this multi award winning five star hotel located on the Lakes of Killarney.

Hotel Guests enjoy complimentary access to the Active Level of ESPA at The Europe which includes 20m lap pool, indoor and outdoor vitality pools, heat experiences, lifestyle showers, Technogym and relaxation areas.

Horse Riding and Indoor Tennis are also complimentary.

Winner of Ireland’s Hotel Spa - Five Star, Hotel & Catering Review Gold Medal Awards 2016

The Europe Hotel & Resort, Fossa, Killarney, Co. Kerry Tel: +353 64 66 71300

reservations@theeurope.com

www.theeurope.com

www.facebook.com/TheEurope

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OCTOBER 2016

Go to issuu.com/ ashvillemedia for the online edition

OCTOBER 2016

DINING IN THE USA

MATT MURPHY'S STATESIDE STINT

CONTENTS

JOURNEY OF DISCOVERY

NEW LOOK CONRAD REVEALED

Excellence

AT THE ESTATE MOUNT JULIET REIGNS SUPREME IN LYRATH

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Cover Image - Mount Juliet Estate, Co. Kilkenny.

IN THIS ISSUE

35

19

38 40

COVER STORY

The Keelings Farm Fresh Gold Medal Award Winners

42 The feedback from the judges was outstanding, as they commended the exceptionally high standard of businesses. We would like to thank everyone who entered the awards and extend a huge congratulations to all of the winners.”

Colm Bury, Managing Director, Keelings Farm Fresh

45 50 52

REGULARS

04

NEWS

14

ON THE MOVE

32

SUPPLY LINE

48 KEY TO THE DOOR OCTOBER 2016 | HOTEL

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Interview Matt Murphy on his unique kitchen management methods.

Profile Conrad Dublin launches literary makeover.

Interior Trends Legendary tale inspires luxury lounge.

Food Heroes Chefs dine out on national & international culinary expertise in Galway.

Education & Training Could mentoring alleviate skills constraints in Irish hospitality?

Technology Helping your guests to access fast & reliable Wi-Fi.

Business Matters Blueprints for success in Ireland’s Ancient East.

56

A Quick Chat With Sandeep Singh of Wilde Restaurant

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AND THE WINNERS ARE...

IRELAND’S GUEST EXPERIENCE

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IRELAND’S BUSINESS HOTEL

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Editorial & Production Manager: Mary Connaughton Editorial Assistant: Orla Connolly Art Director: Alan McArthur Layout & Design: Jennifer Reid Creative Director: Jane Matthews Stock Photography: Thinkstock.com Infographics: www.flaticon.com Production: Nicole Ennis Sales Director: Paul Clemenson Managing Director: Gerry Tynan Chairman: Diarmaid Lennon

Published by: Ashville Media, Old Stone Building, Blackhall Green, Dublin 7.

Tel: (01) 432 2200 ISSN: 0332-4400 All rights reserved. Every care has been taken to ensure that the information contained in this magazine is accurate. The publishers cannot, however, accept responsibility for errors or omissions. Reproduction by any means in whole or in part without the permission of the publisher is prohibited. © Ashville Media Group 2016. All discounts, promotions and competitions contained in this magazine are run independently of Hotel & Catering Review. The promoter/advertiser is responsible for honouring the prize.

Editor’s

VIEW K

ey industry representative groups, including Fáilte Ireland, the Irish Hotels Federation and the Irish Tourist Industry Confederation, welcomed the retention of the nine per cent VAT for the hospitality sector in Budget 2017.

Introduced by the Government in 2011, the rate continues to underpin tourism’s recovery, particularly across rural Ireland. The uncertainty surrounding Brexit, and corresponding volatility in the Sterling/Euro exchange rate, means that the retention of the reduced VAT rate provides a certain amount of stability and support for businesses as they seek to navigate the likely difficulties for Ireland posed by Britain’s exit from the EU during the years ahead.

Speaking in the aftermath of Budget 2017, IHF President Joe Dolan said that the 9% VAT rate had been the single most important fiscal initiative for Irish tourism in the last decade and that the decision to retain it demonstrates that it has been highly effective in job creation. Aiden Murphy, Partner at Crowe Horwath, pointed out that food sales represent 40% of total sales for regional hotels, which account for two thirds of the Irish hotel stock. “The 9% VAT rate is key to keeping food prices down and helping support the perception that Ireland offers value for money,” he said. While welcoming the retention of the VAT rate, Eoghan O’Mara Walsh, Chief Executive of the Irish Tourist Industry Confederation, expressed disappointment that investment in tourism was not greater in Budget 2017. ITIC has been calling for a revision of the figures and targets in the government’s national strategy for tourism for some time now. The organisation believes that a figure of four per cent annual growth is achievable. This would equate to 6.2bn annual expenditure by overseas visitors and would create an additional 50,000 jobs by 2025. However, given the business uncertainty caused by Brexit and the likely negative impact of the UK’s decision to start the exit process in March, maybe the government’s current targets are, unfortunately, the best we can hope for in the new political reality.

www.hotelandcateringreview.ie @HC_Review

@

info@hotelandcateringreview.ie

www.facebook.com/hotelandcateringreview

Editor: Maev Martin Email: maev.martin@ ashvillemediagroup.com Telephone: 01 432 2271

To sign up to our online newsletter please go to www.hotelandcateringreview.ie

SEPTEMBER FOR27TH FULL DETAILS2016 ON OURLYRATH 2016 WINNERS ESTATE, PLEASE TURN TO PAGE 19.

CO. KILKENNY #KEELINGSGOLDMEDAL #KEELINGSGOLDMEDAL OCTOBER 2016 | HOTEL

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NEWS AN ENCHANTING OPENING

FROM HILTON

SKELLIG RING IS BEST IN TRAVEL The Skellig Ring drive in Co Kerry has been named one of the top 10 regions in the world to visit in 2017 by Lonely Planet. The company unveiled the accolade in the Lonely Planet’s Best in Travel 2017, its collection of the world’s hottest trends, destinations and experiences for the coming year.

Top ten regions in Lonely Planet’s Best in Travel 2017 are: Choquequirao, Peru; Taranaki, New Zealand; The Azores, Portugal; North Wales, UK; South Australia; Aysén, Chile; The Tuamotus, French Polynesia; Coastal Georgia, USA; Perak, Malaysia; The Skellig Ring.

Nóirín Hegarty, Lonely Planet’s Operations Director Ireland, Tourism Minister Shane Ross, and Niall Gibbons, CEO of Tourism Ireland.

Amaris Hospitality and Hilton Garden Inn recently celebrated the official opening of the 239-room Hilton Garden Inn Dublin Custom House with an ‘enchanted garden’ themed party attended by representatives from the hospitality industry, clients and guests. The brand’s first hotel in Ireland, which is owned and operated by Amaris Hospitality, has been converted from a Jurys Inn property as part of a 140m strategy and investment programme to transform, rebrand and reposition a number of hotels in the Amaris Hospitality portfolio. “The conversion of the hotel has seen us commit an investment of £3.1m to the hotel and enhance the quality of the property and guest experience of this very popular hotel even further, ” says Amaris Hospitality CEO John Brennan.

BALLYFIN IS TOPS WITH CONDE NAST READERS 4

HOTEL

Ballyfin Demesne in Co Laois has been named the world’s best hotel at the Conde Nast Traveler’s Readers’ Choice Awards 2016, where it was joined in the top 10 by two other Irish hotels. The Conde Nast Traveler’s Readers’ Choice Awards, voted for by over 300,000 readers of the influential US travel magazine, saw Ballyfin claim the top spot, with Waterford Castle in seventh place and The Lodge at Ashford Castle in ninth.

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NATIONAL TOURISM CAREERS DRIVE LAUNCHED A national tourism careers programme highlighting the employment opportunities in Irish tourism was launched on September 29th by Minister of State for Tourism and Sport, Patrick O’Donovan. The programme is designed to enable second-level students aged 15 to 18 to explore the full range of career paths and options available throughout the country. It is being run in close collaboration with tourism and hospitality businesses, which currently need to recruit over 6,000 entry-level employees each year across all areas of their operations.

Targeting over 800 post-primary schools and youth reach centres, the initiative is being run by the Irish Hotels Federation (IHF) and the Irish Hospitality Institute (IHI) in partnership with Fáilte Ireland. It includes an interactive online programme for students and teachers (Tourism Insight) developed by the Institute of Technology Tralee, and a free digital and print magazine on tourism career options (Get a Life in Tourism). This is being supported by a student work experience programme, school talks by industry professionals, and a series of regional careers events. The national tourism careers programme was jointly developed by the IHI and Mary Rose Stafford in the Institute of Technology, Tralee, with the support of key tourism stakeholders. In addition to Fáilte Ireland and the IHF, the development of the programme was supported by the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport, the Department of Education and Skills, Tourism Ireland, and the Restaurants Association of Ireland, as well as major employers in the industry. These include The Doyle Collection, Dalata Hotel Group, Jurys Inn Group, Compass, Dublin Institute of Technology, The Conrad, The Gleneagle Hotel Group, Irish Travel Agents Association, TravelPort, The Lee Hotel Group, Prem Group, Muckross House, Foras Na Gaeilge, IBEC and GTTP.

Pictured at the launch of the National Tourism Careers Programme are Erin Harper, Kayleigh Murray and Dmitry Stroykov, all from The Conrad Dublin Hotel.

Senator David Norris and John Clancy, Culinary Arts Lecturer, DIT, enjoy the strawberry macaroons with white chocolate ganache filling.

CULINARY SCHOOL CELEBRATES 75 YEARS All in the Food: 75 Years of Cathal Brugha Street was officially launched by Senator David Norris at DIT Cathal Brugha Street on October 11th. The book celebrates the School of Culinary Arts and Food Technology, DIT - one of the world’s most famous culinary schools.

Founded in 1941, it has taught generations of chefs and other food professionals, many of whom have spread their skills around the world or become household names. The book contains recipes from nearly 60 contributors who currently train or have taught in Cathal Brugha Street, including Darina Allen, Richard Corrigan, Michel Roux Jr, Neven Maguire, Ross Lewis, Stephen McAllister, Derry Clarke and Kevin Thornton. Apart from recipes, the book’s contents also includes the history of Cathal Brugha Street, major Irish chefs and their equally famous dishes, artisan food and key food producers, and looks at the future of food, from molecular gastronomy to sustainability.

OCTOBER 2016 | HOTEL

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LATEST FIGURES POINT TO STRONG SUMMER SEASON

John O’Halloran, UCC Vice President for Teaching + Learning, Professor of Zoology and Green Forum Chairperson, and Michael Gleeson, Managing Director of KSG Catering.

FARM TO FORK

INITIATIVE COMES TO FRUITION

For the first time in a university in Ireland, students and staff at University College Cork gathered at the iconic Quadrangle as the first harvest of vegetables and herbs from the KSG UCC Farm to Fork programme arrived on campus by traditional tractor and trailer on September 27th. The Farm to Fork initiative, developed by KSG Catering Ltd in partnership with UCC, is the first of its kind in any university in Ireland, with crops being grown on the university land and then harvested for use in the campus restaurants. KSG Catering operate the farm in conjunction with Nigel Martin, a local Curraheen farmer who has assisted with the planting, growing and harvesting on the farm located close by. Eight acres of crops, which were planted in late spring, are now yielding a harvest of fresh vegetables and herbs including carrots, turnips, parsnips and beetroot, and herbs such as rosemary, mint and thyme. The farm will continue to produce these crops for the UCC restaurants until February when the ground will be ploughed and replanted for the next cycle of growth through spring and summer.

The goal of the project is to provide sustainable local healthy produce for KSG’s 13 restaurants and cafés, directly connecting the ecosystem to the plates of students and staff on campus.

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The Irish tourism industry enjoyed a buoyant 2016 summer season with a significant proportion of hoteliers (84%) and guesthouse operators (76%) reporting that their business was up on their 2015 performance.

This was one of the key takeaways from Fáilte Ireland’s Autumn Tourism Barometer, which surveyed over 600 tourism businesses. With respect to general sentiment in the industry, the Barometer recorded peak levels of confidence in the sector: As well as increased business during 2016 so far, the survey also reports that four in five hoteliers (79%), and more than two thirds (69%) of guesthouse operators, experienced increased profitability this year compared to 2015. Importantly, this growth in profitability is reflected in the fact that the majority of hotels (63%) and guesthouses (54%) had more staff on their books this year.

While operating costs (excluding fuel and energy) continue to be mentioned by 39% of enterprises as an issue, the new challenge of ‘Brexit’ now features as the most common concern for the future within the industry, mentioned by 44% of businesses. This concern is reflected in the fact that only about one in four (27%) of paid serviced accommodation providers expect growth from Britain over the next few months, despite the fact that almost half (47%) experienced more British business so far this year. Existing concerns about Brexit centre around uncertainty with regard to the implications of the vote and the current impact of the situation on exchange rates.

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the ca st le | t he lodge | t he old stable mews

A rural retreat in the heart of Ireland‌

N

estled on 1,000 acres of undulating Irish countryside, dotted with ancient woodland and glittering lakes, Castle Leslie Estate is one of the last great Irish castle estates still in the hands of its founding family. Steeped in history, full of character and charm, it is the ultimate Irish rural escape.

Only 80 minutes from Dublin and 60 minutes from Belfast,

hub of the Estate, a country house boutique hotel that brings

Castle Leslie Estate boasts a variety of accommodation and

locals and guests together in an atmosphere of conviviality and

activities to suit all tastes. The Castle, at the heart of the Estate,

comfort. The Old Stable Mews and Village Cottages are the

offers authentic original interiors and old-style hospitality and

perfect spot for groups that want the convenience of hotel living

is a complete respite from the world. The Lodge is the social

combined with private luxury home rental.

Castle Leslie Estate, Glaslough, Monaghan

241253 Castle Leslie HC JM.indd 1

007.indd 1

t: + 353 47 88 100

www.castleleslie.com

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IRELAND’S ONLY NEW MICHELIN STAR

Heron & Grey in Dublin’s Blackrock Market became the only new Irish restaurant to win a Michelin Star when the Michelin Guide Great Britain & Ireland 2017 was published on October 3rd. The fine-dining restaurant, described by the guide as “quirky, innovative and original,”changes its menu every fortnight, and the kitchen is only open for dinner on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The country’s 10th, and the island’s 12th, Michelin starred restaurant is the product of cross-continent collaboration and fast-paced culinary creativity. Chef Damien Grey, originally from Goulburn, Australia, and his front of house partner Andrew met while Andrew was working his way across the continent. The pair brought their 30 years of collective hospitality experience back to Dublin, opening Heron and Grey in December.

No Irish restaurants lost a star this year, with Galway’s Aniar and Loam, Dublin’s The Greenhouse, Chapter One and l’Ecrivain, House in Ardmore, Campagne and Lady Helen in Kilkenny, and Belfast’s Eipic and Ox all retaining their stars, as did two Michelin-starred Patrick Guilbaud’s. Five Bib Gourmands were dished out in Dublin - to Delahunt, Etto, Pichet, The Pig’s Ear and Pigeon House. Also awarded a Bib were 1826, in Adare, Co Limerick, The Courthouse, in Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan, Café Hans, in Cashel, Co Tipperary, Sha-Roe Bistro, in Clonegal, Co Carlow, Chart House, in Dingle, Co Kerry, and Aldridge Lodge, in Duncannon, Co Wexford. They were joined by The Copper Hen, in Tramore, Co Waterford, Giovannelli in Killorglin, Co Kerry, Bastion and Fishy Fishy, both in Kinsale, Co Cork, and Wild Honey Inn, in Lisdoonvarna, Co Clare.

KERRY WINS CARVERY OF THE YEAR TITLE

(l-r): Jim Reeves, Customer Director Ireland at Unilever Food Solutions, Bernard O’Riordan, Noreen O’Leary, Nigel Owens, and Collette Andre and Ivor Woods of The Heights Hotel.

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HOTEL

The Heights Hotel in Killarney, Co Kerry was recently named as the best hotel in the country to serve a carvery in this year’s Knorr Great Carvey of the Year competition. The winners were unveiled by Welsh international rugby referee Nigel Owens at the Knorr Great Carvery of the Year grand final at the Herbert Park Hotel in Dublin. Launched in 2010 by Unilever Food Solutions Ireland, Knorr Great Carvery of the Year is an all-island search for Ireland’s best pub and hotel carvery. Recent research carried out by Unilever found that carvery is still hugely popular with Irish people. Two in every three eat carvery meals on a regular basis, with 25% eating carvery at least once a week. The research also emphasised that pub and hotel food remain serious business, with over 50% of people choosing carvery as the preferred destination for a weekend family meal or Sunday lunch. Among the provincial winners in the Hotel of the Year category are Whitford House Hotel, Wexford, (Leinster); The Heights Hotel, Kerry (Munster); Hodson Bay Hotel, Roscommon, (Connacht) and The Silver Tassie Hotel, Donegal (Ulster).

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BALLYMUN

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The Merrion Hotel, one of Ireland’s most prestigious five-star hotels, is currently seeking an exceptional Manager for their new restaurant scheduled to open in early 2017.

A unique opening for an experienced Restaurant Manager

The ideal candidate for this important senior position will be a seasoned professional with experience overseeing a similar great dining establishment.

Apart from being a challenging and rewarding career opportunity, the role provides an environment where continuous professional development and fulfillment are actively encouraged for all team members.

If creating an exemplary culinary experience – and everything that entails – whets your appetite, we are waiting to hear from you.

Visit http://www.merrionhotel.com/human_resources.php to apply for this position or email us at recruitment@merrionhotel.com

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Michelin Star Chef, Author and Restaurateur JP Mc Mahon with Julianne Forrestal, Executive Craft Chef, Sodexo Ireland, Patricia Walsh, Business Development Manager and Ann Duggan, Commercial Manager, NUI Galway at the announcement of Sodexo’s 2m catering contract with the university.

SODEXO WINS 2M NUI GALWAY CONTRACT

EXCEL TO RECRUIT OVER 100 CHEFS Excel Recruitment is hoping to recruit over 100 chefs in the next 12 months, following a recent trip to Croatia “With the shortage of chefs in Ireland at an all-time low and the number of vacancies on the increase, my colleague Laurence Rogers and I travelled to Zagreb with the Restaurants Association of Ireland to explore the prospect of bringing talented chefs to Ireland,” says Excel Recruitment’s General Manager Shane McLave. “We had a pretty full day and Adrian Cummins and the RAI did a great job of lining up industry professionals that had the skills and an interest in working in Ireland.”

Following a meeting with the Irish Ambassador, Olive Hempenstall, Shane and Laurence, who recruit permanent hospitality staff, were treated to a lunch showcasing the standard of cooking and the local cuisine on offer. “The chefs that we hope to recruit will work both directly for Excel Recruitment and with their clients,” says Shane. “With a bustling tourist trade and an abundance of hotels, bars and restaurants, demand is not being met. Excel Recruitment hope that, by travelling abroad, the first tentative steps towards a proactive solution have been taken. We will assess how our first pool of recruits are settling in and look to other European countries to see if we can replicate this and reach our target of recruiting 500 chefs over the next two years.”

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HOTEL

Sodexo has won its first Irish university catering contract worth 2m annually from NUI Galway.

JP McMahon, the Galway-based Michelin-star winning chef, author and restaurateur, will act as Sodexo’s menu consultant, as well as providing training for the company’s 40 staff on-site. “Sodexo is also the first university catering provider to employ a Student Experience Manager to provide a central point of contact on campus and to help build positive, two-way relationships with students and staff,” says Paul Anstey, Chief Executive for Sodexo Universities UK, Ireland and Nordics. NUI Galway has over 17,000 students and more than 2,400 staff. Sodexo will be managing An Bhialann, the 720-seater restaurant that forms the heart of NUI Galway’s on-campus catering offer. “Sodexo will refocus and refresh the restaurant, putting in a new selection of food offers,” says Paul. “It will work closely with local suppliers to offer food that is fresh, tasty and ethically-sourced while still competitively priced.” Sodexo will also introduce innovative LeanPath technology to help drive down food waste. LeanPath is an electronic smart meter that enables kitchen staff to track, monitor, and reduce food waste using a tablet device.

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FITZGERALDS UNVEIL TRIBUTE TO LATE OWNER

(l-r): Conor Fitzgerald, David Fitzgerald, Mary Fitzgerald, Elaina Fitzgerald and Richard Fitzgerald.

IRELAND VOTED BEST DESTINATION IN THE WORLD Ireland has triumphed at this year’s Group Leisure Awards in Britain, after being voted Best International Destination by thousands of readers of Group Leisure magazine. Beating off stiff competition from the likes of France, Germany, Italy and India to claim the title, the award was presented to representatives of Tourism Ireland at the Group Leisure Awards ceremony, which took place in Birmingham recently. The annual awards recognise the best destinations, attractions, and providers for the group travel industry, as voted for by active travel organisers from sports and social clubs, retired associations, special interest societies and other groups.

Almost two years have gone by since the passing of legendary hotelier Dick Fitzgerald of Fitzgeralds Woodlands House Hotel & Spa. As a tribute to the much-loved man, the Fitzgerald family have unveiled a new-look bar and specially commissioned locally brewed stout in his memory. The creation of Dick’s Bar, which can hold up to 200 people, forms part of a wider ongoing 2m refurbishment project which saw the 89-bedroom hotel attain four-star status in June 2015, 40 years after it first began life as a four-bedroom B&B established

by Dick and his wife Mary as a way of supplementing their farming income.

Speaking at the launch, Mary Fitzgerald said that anyone who knew Dick knew that he was happiest with a pint of stout in his hand as he held court among his friends. “When Dick passed to his eternal reward we knew there was only one way to truly celebrate his life,” she said. “We approached a small local brewery – JJ’s Craft Brewing of Kilmallock – to see if they could craft a stout that would represent the best pint of Dick’s life." Working closely with the Fitzgerald family, owners Jim Lynch and John Coughlan developed their first custom-brewed stout. “The stout itself is made using Irish malt and barley, which we roast ourselves, and the brewing process takes two-and-a-half weeks from start to finish," says Jim Lynch. "We then barrel it ready for sale exclusively in Dick’s Bar.”

Stuart Prosser, Jet2.com (left), and presenters Anton Du Beke and Erin Boag, of Strictly Come Dancing fame, present the award to Cormac Ó Suilleabháin and Judith Cassidy, both Tourism Ireland.

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Commercial

PROFILE

FOOD TRAIN DEPARTS

FOR WILD ATLANTIC WAY

F

áilte Ireland recently partnered with Iarnród Éireann and the Sligo Food Trail – Harvest Feast Season to bring all that Sligo has to offer to a group of food and travel writers as part of a series of new initiatives to stimulate regional dispersion and seasonal extension along the Wild Atlantic Way. The VIP writers recently boarded a ‘Sligo Food Train’ from Connolly Station to Sligo where they got to sample some of the counties local produce and hear about The Sligo Food Trail and the Wild Atlantic Way.

STIMULATING REGIONAL DISPERSION

& SEASONAL EXTENSION AS FÁILTE IRELAND CONTINUES ITS EFFORTS TO MAINTAIN AND INCREASE VISITOR NUMBERS FROM OUR SINGLE LARGEST MARKET, THE ORGANISATION IS ALSO FOCUSING ON IRELAND’S ATTRIBUTES AS A GOOD FOOD NATION TO STRENGTHEN THE REGIONAL TOURISM PRODUCT AND FURTHER EXTEND THE TOURISM SEASON.

International media get a culinery showcase at the Tannery Restaurant and Townhouse

Will Collins, Fáilte Ireland, Ellen Redmond, Fáilte Ireland, with Martin Schechler, N-News City Magazine, Germany, Kathy Mangan, prolific freelancer with the National Geographic and Dr Leonardus Johannes van Marrewijk, the Netherlands, at the The White Hag Brewing Company in Ballymote

Pictured are a group of international journalists on a visit to Lismore in Ireland’s Ancient East where they met with Mealla Fahey, the Lismore Experience and Jane Stokes, Fáilte Ireland.

FAMILIARISING GLOBAL MEDIA

WITH IRISH FOOD

Pictured at Connolly Station, Dublin, were chef Rodolpho Leonardo, Sligo Food Trail (The Glasshouse Hotel); Noelle Cawley, Fáilte Ireland, Sheila Harran, Sligo Tourism, and RAI President Anthony Gray, Chair, Sligo Food Trail.

T

op media have been getting familiar with Irish food with two groups recently exploring some of the unique food experiences on offer in Ireland’s Ancient East and the Wild Atlantic Way. The trips were organised by Fáilte Ireland in conjunction with Tourism Ireland. One group, with a circulation of 1.3 million, headed to Kilkenny and Waterford to experience the story of Ireland’s food, while the other group, which included National Geographic’s Kathy Mangan, and had a readership of six million, discovered food destinations in Sligo and Cong.

HOTEL

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Commercial

PROFILE

Dr. Brendan McCormack, incoming President, IT Sligo, Eva Dearie, Fáilte Ireland, Kate Taylor, Tailored Training, Eveanna Ryan, Meet in Galway and Dermot Langan, Destination Mayo.

AUTUMN SALES BLITZ TARGETS UK

CO-OPERATION KEY TO

TOURISM SUCCESS

O

ver 60 of Sligo’s key tourism industry stakeholders gathered recently for the ‘Tourism Co-Operation for Success’ conference. Organised by Fáilte Ireland, the event provided an ideal opportunity for local stakeholders to come together as a new tourism strategy is being developed for Sligo. The conference included speakers such as Fáilte Ireland’s Eva Dearie, newlyappointed President of IT Sligo, Brendan McCormack, Dermot Langan, Destination Westport, Eveanna Ryan, ‘Meet in Galway’ business tourism, and Kate Taylor, Destination Kinsale.

CONNECTING WITH

IRELAND’S BEST ASSETS

I Attendees get a taste of Dublin ahead of Connect 16

Connect Ireland delegates visit Limerick

HOTEL

t was down to business last month as 70 of the world’s top international meeting planners, who bring international business worth over 210m annually to Ireland, toured the country ahead of the live event showcase Connect16. Fáilte Ireland, as headline sponsor of the event, took the opportunity to persuade these top international meeting planners to bring their future conference and incentive business to these shores. Valued at 669m a year, business tourism is big business for Ireland and the Meet in Ireland team were also on hand at Connect16 to showcase the range of supports they have on offer.

Find out more at www.meetinireland.com

Darren Whelan, Airfield Estate, with Amy Riddell and Cormac O’Suilleabhain, Tourism Ireland Great Britain, at the GB Coach Workshop in Kilkenny.

I

rish tourism businesses from across the country attended the first of Fáilte Ireland’s autumn sales workshops in Kilkenny recently where they pitched their businesses to a group of 20 top British coach and group operators. This workshop, which was organised by Fáilte Ireland, in conjunction with Tourism Ireland, is the first in a series of three sales workshops focusing on attracting more overseas visitors from key markets, including the UK and Canadian markets. The workshops provide a cost effective and time effective business opportunity for the Irish tourism businesses to meet buyers and engage in one-to-one sales meetings, to either make initial contact or maintain already established business relationships.

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ON THE MOVE

Move

On the

New Appointments, Promotions and Recruitment

IAN TODD

SIMON TOYE

BRYAN HILL

NEW POSITION DIRECTOR OF FINANCE & IT

NEW POSITION GROUP DEVELOPMENT CHEF

EMPLOYER MOUNT CHARLES GROUP

EMPLOYER MOUNT CHARLES GROUP

NEW POSITION BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER

Mount Charles has recruited nine people to key roles within the business. The roles are as follows; Director of Finance & IT, Business Development Manager, Senior Bid Manager, Group Manager, Regional Manager, Operations Manager, Key Account Manager, Brand & Marketing Manager and Group Development Chef. Ian Todd is now Director of Finance & IT. Ian joins Mount Charles with over 12 years’ experience working in Finance and IT across various industry sectors.

He previously worked in the finance department of Jenkins Shipping group for eight years and has also held roles in Acheson & Glover, Regus UK Ltd and the Sheridan Group.

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HOTEL

Responsible for the creation and development of bespoke catering solutions for the company’s client base, Simon Toye’s role involves the continual review, development and improvement of the menu portfolio and the development of chefs across all units. Simon has been cooking professionally since 1984 and during his career has worked for some of the most high profile restaurants and hospitality groups in Northern Ireland.

Prior to joining Mount Charles, Simon was the Executive Chef for the Deanes group of restaurants.

EMPLOYER MOUNT CHARLES GROUP

As Business Development Manager, Bryan Hill will be responsible for generating new catering, beverage and vending business and for retaining and growing existing contracts through the development of long-term business relationships. Bryan joins Mount Charles with an extensive career in catering sales. He previously worked as a supplier to many Mount Charles sites for Cuisine de France and has 15 years’ hotel experience with key groups such as Hilton UK and The Tower Hotel Group.

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ON THE MOVE

DAVID PHELAN

JANICE STEWART

LEO MCNAMEE

NEW POSITION SENIOR BID MANAGER

NEW POSITION GROUP MANAGER

NEW POSITION REGIONAL MANAGER

EMPLOYER MOUNT CHARLES GROUP

EMPLOYER MOUNT CHARLES GROUP

EMPLOYER MOUNT CHARLES GROUP

David Phelan joins Mount Charles with 10 years’ bid experience across a wide range of industries, including office supplies, facilities management, and management consultancy.

Responsible for leading the sales support team to retain incumbent contracts and win new business across the Group’s service portfolio, David and his team work in conjunction with operations, business development, finance, HR, marketing, procurement and health and safety departments to manage the proposal and bid lifecycle.

Janice Stewart manages the company’s contract at Ulster University, supporting unit management in achieving budgetary targets, KPIs and the professional delivery of a quality catering service.

Business retention and sales growth are an integral part of the role.

Janice was promoted to the role of Group Manager in July 2016 after working for Mount Charles for three years.

She brings a wealth of experience in contract catering, with clients ranging from banks to the NHS. For 22 years prior to joining Mount Charles, Janice ran an event catering company and retail coffee shop business.

Leo McNamee is responsible for overall operations and employee management for key Mount Charles catering contracts including Ulster University, Fed & Watered at Belfast International Airport, City of Derry Airport and Exeter Airport, and Mossley Mill in Newtownabbey.

Leo has a wealth of experience in retail and hospitality operations working mainly within the pub/restaurant sector. He previously ran one of Glasgow’s premier entertainment complexes, before moving onto area and regional management roles with some of the UK’s largest pub/ restaurant operators.

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PROFILE

IRELAND ROADSHOW ROLLS ON WHETHER IT’S CREATIVE ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS IN LONDON OR NEW YORK, A PLANNED TRADE MISSION ‘DOWN UNDER’, OR A MAJOR SALES BLITZ IN THE MIDDLE EAST, TOURISM IRELAND CONTINUES TO FIND INNOVATIVE WAYS TO HIGHLIGHT EVERY ASPECT OF THE IRISH TOURISM PRODUCT OVERSEAS.

SOCIAL SUCCESS FOR TOURISM IRELAND

Ireland was named the number two destination in the ‘top ten destinations on social media’ in France at the recent IFTM (International French Travel Market) travel trade exhibition in Paris. A survey of 80 different destinations was conducted between September 2015 and August 2016, looking at their social media strategy and performance in terms of fans, followers and engagement. Ireland finished in second place after Mauritius, but came in ahead of destinations like Malta, Flanders, Norway, Canada and Britain. Séverine Lecart, Tourism Ireland, is pictured with the award.

Patricia Doe, Wilderness Ireland, Sofia Hansson, Tourism Ireland, David Wardell, Irish National Stud and Gardens, Dervla O’Neill, Epic Ireland, Genevieve Sheehan, Sheenco Travel, Esther Dobbin, National Trust - Giant’s Causeway, and (front, l-r): Wayne Jenkins, Extreme Ireland, John Hehir, Dromoland Castle, Fiona Delahunty, Griffin Group Hotels, and Martin Brassil, CIE Tours International, at the briefing in Dublin for Tourism Ireland’s sales mission to Australia and New Zealand.

HITTING THE ROAD ‘DOWN UNDER’

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ourism Ireland, together with 13 Irish tourism companies, is preparing to undertake a week-long sales mission to Australia and New Zealand to grow tourism from both markets. The sales mission, which takes place from November 14th to 21st, will target 300 influential travel agents, tour operators, airlines and travel journalists in the key cities of Auckland, Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne. The objective is to engage with travel professionals in the four cities who are currently selling the island of Ireland, or who have strong potential to sell the destination, and to encourage them to extend their Ireland offering, or to include Ireland for the first time in their future brochures and programmes.

The island of Ireland has experienced very good growth in visitors from Australia and New Zealand over the past few years, with a record 200,000+ people visiting in 2015.

‘DRIVING’ TOURISM IN NYC Ireland ads have been appearing on taxis in New York this autumn, reminding prospective American visitors to ‘take the road less travelled’ in Ireland.

Pictured are Deirdre O’Brien and Alison Metcalfe, both Tourism Ireland.

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PROFILE

Article on Dublin in Time Out in London.

Tourism Minister Patrick O’Donovan, John Callelly, Teeling Whiskey Distillery, Lauren Folbigg, Intercruises Shoreside and Port Services, and Niall Gibbons, CEO of Tourism Ireland, at Flavours of Ireland 2016.

FLAVOURS OF IRELAND 2016

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hirty-eight Irish tourism enterprises took part in Flavours of Ireland 2016, Tourism Ireland’s annual B2B workshop in London. Now in its 14th year, Flavours of Ireland aims to grow our share of the huge worldwide travel market. The event is attended by representatives of top UK inbound tour operators, who are responsible for putting in place the arrangements for holidaymakers to Britain and Ireland from all over the world. Flavours of Ireland was therefore an excellent opportunity for the participating Irish tourism providers to highlight and sell their product to these important decision-makers and to encourage them to feature the island of Ireland in their 2017 holiday programmes.

TARGETING BRITONS

FOR AUTUMN BREAKS Tourism Ireland is partnering with Time Out in London this autumn, reaching its 1.1 million ‘social energiser’ readers with various articles about Dublin. Digital promotions are targeting a further 550,000 people through a special Dublin section in Time Out online, as well as through blog posts and email marketing. Various articles about Ireland are also appearing in the Saturday travel section of the Telegraph this autumn, reaching about 1.1 million readers.

The themes of the articles include Dublin and Ireland’s Ancient East. And, a further 32 Ireland articles are appearing in the Telegraph online, between September and November, reaching 750,000 readers.

SELLING IRELAND IN

THE MIDDLE EAST

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ourism Ireland and eight Irish tourism operators took part in a major sales blitz in the UAE and India as part of a sales mission to grow tourism from these rapidly developing markets. With approximately 90,000 visitors from the UAE and India travelling to Ireland in 2015, Tourism Ireland is committed to further growing tourism from these markets in 2017.

Mohammed Al Rais, CEO of Al Rais Travels (centre), is pictured with Niall Gibbons and Aisling McDermott, both Tourism Ireland, during the sales mission in Dubai.

Tourism Ireland and Al Rais Travel teamed up this autumn to bring top Emirati social influencer Taim Al Falasi to Ireland. During the sales mission, Al Rais Travel launched a new seven-day itinerary, called ‘Taim’s Ireland Experience,’ allowing her fans to follow in her footsteps and experience the island of Ireland.

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T Breda Miley, Managing Director, Noel Recruitment.

Hugh Murray of Classic Drinks with Sunil Ghai of Pickle restaurant.

Colette Brawn and Eithne Cosgrove of Hotel Westport.

he Keelings Farm Fresh Gold Medal Awards 2016 took place at the Lyrath Estate Hotel in Kilkenny on September 27th. MC for the evening was TV3’s Martin King and over 400 industry professionals from across the hotel and catering industry were in attendance to congratulate the winners. Mount Juliet Estate was the Supreme Winner on the night and renowned industry doyenne Lee Kidney was presented with the prestigious Service to the Industry Award.

This year, our events team reported 490 category entries, totalling 190 properties, across 28 award categories and our expert judging panel visited 160 properties. During its 28-year history, the Gold Medal Awards have been consistently recognised as the leading independent awards for the Irish hospitality sector. This year we introduced seven new categories - Ireland’s Business Hotel, Ireland’s Newcomer Restaurant, Ireland’s European Restaurant, Ireland’s Wedding Venue, Ireland’s Industrial Caterer, and our two People’s Choice Awards for Ireland’s Favourite Place to Eat and Ireland’s Favourite Place to Stay. Lots of fantastic prizes were given away on the night, including a Teelings hamper from Excel Recruitment, magnums of champagne from Febvre & Company, and a Nutribullet and fruit hamper from Keelings Farm Fresh. In addition, Noel Recruitment presented no less than three sets of VIP tickets to the 3 Arena to some lucky guests!

Indeed, without our sponsors, the awards would not be the success that they continue to be year in year out, so I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of our sponsors for their support again this year. I would also like to thank the industry for keeping faith with us and turning out in such strong numbers to the 2016 awards in Kilkenny this year. It is the first time in the award’s history that they have been staged outside Dublin. And, if the feedback from our guests is anything to go by, the service, professionalism and warmth of the Lyrath team, not to mention the superb cuisine, all made a strong case for hosting future award ceremonies outside the capital! We hope that you enjoyed the 2016 Gold Medal Awards night and, if you weren’t there, we would love to see you at next year’s event.

Maev Martin

NUMBERS ON THE NIGHT

490 entries

160 properties visited

430 people in the room

28

categories

Editor

Cait O’Neill of Noel Recruitment.

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Ashville Media’s Miriam Tynan accepts the award on behalf of David Hurley from Peter Foley, Executive Vice-President, Pallas Foods.

GREGANS CASTLE IRELAND’S CHEF OF THE YEAR, SPONSORED BY PALLAS FOODS

Above left: Minister of State for Tourism and Sport, Patrick O’Donovan with Maev Martin, Editor, Hotel & Catering Review; Above:The Mount Juliet Estate team celebrate their victory (l-r): Jean Henry, Ken Harker, John Kelly, Christine Murphy, Peter Duffy and Rose Doherty.

MOUNT JULIET ESTATE IRELAND’S SUPREME WINNER Mount Juliet Estate in Thomastown, Co Kilkenny, was the Supreme Winner in the 2016 Keelings Farm Fresh Gold Medal Awards. The hotel was awarded two other accolades at the prestigious awards ceremony - Ireland’s Fine Dining Restaurant of the Year for the Lady Helen restaurant, and Ireland’s Best Four Star Hotel. “I am delighted to be taking three of these coveted awards back to the estate,” says Acting General Manager Christine Murphy. “To be acknowledged for our accommodation, our Michelin-star fine dining at the Lady Helen, and winning the overall award is a testament to the incredible team at Mount Juliet. A large investment programme is currently underway and we recently announced the redevelopment of Hunter’s Yard, which will feature 93 luxurious new bedrooms, a 140-seater restaurant and a re-design of Kendals restaurant to accommodate up to 210 diners.

Additionally, Mount Juliet Estate plans to redesign the health club and treatment suites to create a leading spa and pampering destination in Ireland from next year.”

TJ Mulcahy, Ashford Castle, Colin Brown and Jacinta Downey of The Lodge at Ashford Castle, and Niall Rochford of Ashford Castle.

Gregans Castle Hotel’s Executive Chef David Hurley was victorious in the Ireland’s Chef of the Year category, having also won this award last year.

“David is a young exciting Irish chef who is innovative but at the same time solid in his consistency and is committed to food provenance and the quality of the ingredients he uses,” says Gregans Castle Hotel’s Managing Director Simon Haden. “He is also an excellent kitchen manager. David’s win re-affirms our reputation as an Irish foodie destination, both locally and internationally.”

Matt Fuller and Pauline Brady receive their award from MC Martin King.

BOQUERIA PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD IRELAND’S FAVOURITE PLACE TO EAT Boqueria Restaurant was victorious in the Ireland’s Favourite Place To Eat category. “Our customers are so happy for us here at Boqueria for winning the award,” says Matt Fuller of Boqueria. “The fact that the public, our customers, voted for the winner of this prestigious award is just the icing on the cake. Boqueria is relocating to a fantastic new premises in Howth, and this award will make that journey even more exciting. We are looking forward to the year ahead!”

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OUR SPONSORS

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HAYFIELD MANOR

IRELAND’S WINE EXPERIENCE, SPONSORED BY FEBVRE & COMPANY

Febvre’s Therese O’Toole presents the Ireland’s Wine Experience award to Ettienne van Vrede from Hayfield Manor.

Hayfield Manor took the top honours in the Ireland’s Wine Experience category. Sales & Marketing Assistant Emma Tangney says they are thrilled to have won the award.

“We have a fantastic sommelier, Sandra Biret-Crowley, who is very hard working and popular among our guests, so it was wonderful to win the Best Wine Experience in Ireland award. We have a wine society and we run an exciting evening of food and wine every few months so we feel that winning this award will help us to promote and build up our wine society experiences and other wine events.”

RISTORANTE RINUCCINI

IRELAND’S EUROPEAN RESTAURANT AWARD

Riccardo and Orla Cavaliere receive their award from MC Martin King.

Kilkenny’s Ristorante Rinuccini won the European Restaurant award. “Winning an award that is as well regarded as the Gold Medal Awards is testament to the high standard we set,” says Riccardo Cavaliere of Ristorante Rinuccini. “Here at Rinuccini we take immense pride in the fact that our produce is sourced and imported directly from Italy, including the finest olive oils, charcuterie and cheeses, while the restaurant’s sumptuous décor features beautiful hand blown Murano glass from Venice. It is an honour to have been chosen from such an exclusive list of world class restaurants and this award will make us even more determined to continue to be the best.”

Eugene and Elizabeth Callaghan of Kelly’s Resort & Spa receive their award from the Irish Independent’s Garry Mernagh.

Barbara Coughlan, John Coughlan, and Neringa Stasiunaite with their award.

KELLY’S RESORT & SPA

JOHN COUGHLAN CATERING

Kelly’s Resort & Spa won the Ireland’s Favourite Place to Stay category in this year’s People’s Choice Award. “The feedback has been great,” says Owner Bill Kelly. “It is great to read the lovely comments and compliments that our customers are sending us. That is why the People’s Choice Award is very important, as it comes from the heart. It is amazing how an award puts you back in contact with your guests, especially if they haven’t visited for a while. We will, of course, use the winning of this award in any PR going forward.”

John Coughlan Catering was named the Event Caterer of the Year at the 2016 ceremony. “Feedback from customers has been really positive,” says Owner John Coughlan.

“Customers are looking for something to help them make a decision on a caterer, so the award helps to drive business. We were really pleased with the reaction from management and staff who were very proud of winning, which is great for the business. We will feature the award on our website, proposals, emails, and even on menus, signage and printed material.”

PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD IRELAND’S FAVOURITE PLACE TO STAY

EVENT CATERER OF THE YEAR

SPONSORED BY

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Jason Clifford and Alasdair MacInnes of The Dunloe with their award.

THE DUNLOE

IRELAND’S FAMILY FRIENDLY HOTEL The Dunloe in Co Kerry won the Ireland’s Family Friendly Hotel award. “All industry professionals want to be a recipient of a Keelings Farm Fresh Gold Medal Award,” says the hotel’s General Manager Jason Clifford. “To have the excellent family friendly facilities and family friendly atmosphere of The Dunloe formally recognised and endorsed by this prestigious award will reassure our future and repeat guests that there is substance to our own claim that we really are the best family friendly hotel in Ireland.”

Mary Healy of Corporate Catering Services Ltd (second from left) presents the award to Nadia Gubanova, Eileen Timmons and Garrett O’Neill.

THE PLAZA

IRELAND’S BUSINESS HOTEL The Plaza Dublin Airport Hotel claimed the top honours in this category. “We’ve had several customers send notes of congratulations to us saying that it was well deserved so we are delighted with that vote of confidence,” says Eileen Timmon, Director of Sales and Marketing at the hotel. “It gives the corporate traveller or conference booker added confidence in our product and it is an additional unique selling point when we are tendering for new business. And our staff can feel proud of being part of a winning team.”

SPONSORED BY

T

his is the fourth year that Ashville Media Group have produced this event and we were delighted to host the awards outside Dublin for the first time in their 28-year history.

Apart from the new location, we also continued to make new categories open to the industry. Ireland’s Wedding Venue was one of the seven new categories that we rolled out this year and it proved to be one of the most hotly contested. The exceptionally high standards achieved by the entrants meant that we had no less than 10 finalists in the wedding category because our judges just couldn’t narrow it down any further! Similarly, the quantity and quality of entries in the Ireland’s Hotel Spa category exceeded our expectations to such an extent that we decided to split the category into 4 Star and 5 Star properties.

Also new in 2016, the Keelings Farm Fresh Gold Medal Awards partnered with the Irish Independent to create two People’s Choice categories where we invited the public to nominate their favourite place to stay and favourite place to eat. It was fantastic to see the response that these new awards generated, with over 300 hotels and restaurants being nominated across the country. Our judges travelled across the country site inspecting 160 properties and this year we had one of the most heated discussions that I have been part of! It was great to see so many of our judges being passionate about the properties.

The Keelings Farm Fresh Gold Medal Awards would like to thank all of our sponsors for their continued support, including Noel Recruitment for the singing chefs and Febvre for the beautiful wines that accompanied the meal. This is our second year partnering with Keeling Farm Fresh, who provoided all of the fresh produce in the room on the night, and I have to say that Colm, Stella, Aisling and the entire team are really lovely to work with. Together we delivered 3,000 gold envelopes inviting you to enter and 140 beautifully framed gold medal finalist certificates.

Finally, our new venue, The Lyrath Estate Hotel in Kilkenny, did a great job in delivering an exceptional event that really wowed our guests, so we are hoping to return there for 2017.

Tracey Carney Event Director Ashville Media Group

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MENU ON THE NIGHT Beetroot Cured Salmon Picked Beetroot, Lemon Gel, Saffron Creme Fraiche, Rye Bread

Irish Hereford Fillet Steak Colcannon, Pumpkin Puree, Pancetta Crisp, Irish Watercress, Blueberry Jus

Lee Kidney is presented with the prestigious Service to the Industry Award by Colm Bury, Managing Director, Keelings Farm Fresh.

LEE KIDNEY LEE HOTEL GROUP

or

SERVICE TO THE INDUSTRY

Monkfish Tail Orange Dust Parsnip Puree, Colcannon, Pancetta, Pommery Mustard Sauce

Irish Brambley Apple Bakewell Pie Fresh Blueberries & Raspberries, Cinnamon Ice Cream

Tea or Coffee Selected Wine Pairings: Ten Rocks, Sauvignon Blanc 2015, Marlborough, New Zealand, Made by the Lawson’s Dry Hills estate in Marlborough. The palate is crisp and fresh with strong citrus flavours and a lovely chalky mouthfeel. Good weight, lovely texture and a long finish.

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Linteo Nero D’Avola 2015, Sicily, Made by Cantine Minini in Sicily. A great food wine and made with the Sicilian grape Nero d’Avola. It has lovely notes of black cherries and blackberries with a hint of spice on the finish.

Educated at Newbridge College and at Cathal Brugha Street, Lee began his career in the Dorchester Hotel in London. He was PA to the Managing Director of the Shelbourne Hotel, Peter Jury. and part of the senior management team at Jurys Dame Street and at The Moira Hotel, as well as the new Jurys hotels at Westport and Sligo. He was also the first General Manager of the new Jurys Ballsbridge and Executive Director of the company that was to become Jurys Hotel Group Plc. The Lee family eventually purchased Jurys Sligo which became the Sligo Park, followed by the Kenmare Bay Hotel. In 1994, they transformed a vacant office block in Dublin into the Mespil Hotel.

Lee Hotels sold the Kenmare Bay Hotel in 2005. An active member of the Irish Hotels Federation for decades, Lee was also president of the IHCI, now the Irish Hospitality Institute, from 1980 to 1982. A superb mentor to countless young professionals who have become leaders in the hospitality industry, Lee was chairman of the first Trainee Manager Development Programme, which he helped to establish with Bobby Kerr and Sean O’Malley. What does he regard as his career highlight? “When little old Jurys, a small hotel on Dame Street, bought the Intercontinental.

Michael McCarthy, Barry Sheehan and I walked into the Intercontinentnal in Ballsbridge on November 1st 1972, having bought out the Americans and we felt very proud of ourselves. We didn’t know how much work was ahead of us but it turned out well in the end and we had a lot of fun along the way.”

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Stephen O’Connor, Tom Flavin and Sean Lally of the Limerick Strand Hotel.

Padraig and Carmel McGillicuddy receive their award from Arc Studios CEO Aisling Kerr.

BALLYGARRY HOUSE

THANK YOU TO OUR

SUPPLIERS

IRELAND’S WEDDING VENUE

Margaret McKenna and Fiona Kenny of O’Grady’s On The Pier receive their award from Mary Daly (centre) of the Food Safety Professionals Association.

O’GRADY’S ON THE PIER IRELAND’S WILD ATLANTIC WAY RESTAURANT Galway’s O’Grady’s On The Pier took the top prize in the Ireland’s Wild Atlantic Way Restaurant category. “Feedback from our customers has been really good with plenty of them offering their congratulations,” says Restaurant Manager Fiona Kenny. “The Wild Atlantic Way is one of the best, if not the best, marketing drives in the west of Ireland, drawing huge numbers of tourists from near and far. All operators have seen an upsurge in business over the last few years and O’Grady’s is no exception. Now that we have been voted the best restaurant on the Wild Atlantic Way, we expect customer footfall to increase even further.”

Gold Medal Awards judges Gail Twomey and Donagh Davern of Cork Institute of Technology with Paul Twomey.

Ballygarry House Hotel & Spa was named Ireland’s Wedding Venue of the Year at the 2016 awards. “The Keeling Farm Fresh Gold Medal Awards has long been recognised as an industry benchmark for the best hotels in the country,”says Proprietor Padraig McGillicuddy. “An accolade as high as this is a magnificent achievement for each and every member of our hard working and dedicated team. I want to thank all of our loyal brides, grooms and customers who voted for us, and the judges for acknowledging the work and effort we put into creating the most perfect day possible for all our couples.”

Fresh Produce by Keelings Farm Fresh

Beef and Monkfish

by Pallas Foods

SPONSORED BY

Wines by Febvre & Company

Michael Rosney of Killeen House Hotel receives the award from MC Martin King.

KILLEEN HOUSE

IRELAND’S THREE STAR HOTEL Killeen House Hotel in Killarney claimed the top honours in the Ireland’s Three Star Hotel category. “We had a fantastic response to our win from guests, colleagues, suppliers, and even some overseas operators,” says Michael Rosney of Killeen House Hotel. “Winning a high profile award like this gives us industry recognition, validates our standing among our guests, illustrates our professionalism to our suppliers, and is a massive motivation for our team. We will display this award prominently and publicise it strongly to help us to attract new business and as a reminder of the high standards that we must constantly aspire to develop and maintain.”

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Food presented

by Lyrath Estate Hotel

Cocktails by Classic Drinks Masottina Prosecco, Hyde Whiskey & Stonewell Cider’s Stonewell Esterre

Sparkling Reception Cocktails by Dalcassian Wines & Spirits – Drumshanbo Gunpowder Irish Gin

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OUR SPONSORS

“We at Noel Group were delighted yet again to be in the company of our loyal clients at the 2016 Keelings Gold Medal Awards in Lyrath. We hope everyone enjoyed our multi-talented, award-winning singing chefs on the night. “fino alla prossima volta” Breda Miley, Managing Director, Noel Hospitality

“ARC Studios and Colm Kerr Photography were thrilled to be part of this year’s Gold Medal Awards.

Our relationship with the hospitality industry grows stronger yearon-year. Well done to Ashville Media on such a spectacular event. We look forward to working with Ashville and the sponsors in future years.”

Aisling Kerr, CEO, Arc Studios & Colm Kerr Photography

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eelings Farm Fresh was thrilled to be the headline sponsor for the 28th annual Gold Medal Awards in association with the Hotel & Catering Review magazine. For the first time in their history, we decided to move the awards outside of Dublin to the beautiful setting of Lyrath Estate Hotel in Co. Kilkenny. It was a wonderful location to hold the awards and a central venue for contestants.

The feedback from the judges this year was outstanding, as they commended the exceptionally high standard of businesses in the hotel and catering industry. We would like to thank everyone who entered the Keelings Farm Fresh Gold Medal awards this year and extend a huge congratulations to all of the winners. Your hard work and persistence to ensure a high standard of excellence is a credit to the industry.

We would like to acknowledge all of those who made this year’s awards such a success - our contestants, judging panel, Ashville Media Group, Hotel and Catering Review magazine, and the sponsors on the night: The Irish Independent, Noel Recruitment, Classic Drinks, Pallas Foods, Corporate Catering Services Ltd, Excel Recruitment, Robert Roberts, Sodexo, Arc Studios, the Food Safety Professionals Association, Febvre Wines, and Kantar Media.

Keelings Farm Fresh is focused on delivering superior fresh produce to our customers by working with local and international growers on a daily basis.

It is a joy to work in this area where we have grown up to appreciate a love of nature and to share the art of growing for our customers to enjoy. Our long history has equipped our team of growers, drivers, telesales team, pickers and sales managers to imbue our customers with a passion for the fresh produce industry.

Colm Bury Managing Director Keelings Farm Fresh

Grace O’Brien, Front Office Manager, Killarney Hotels and General Manager Michael Brennan receive their award from Aidan Walker, Client Relationship Director at Sodexo.

THE EUROPE HOTEL & RESORT IRELAND’S HOTEL SPA – FIVE STAR

The Europe Hotel & Resort in Killarney won the Ireland’s Hotel Spa - Five Star award. “We are delighted with the publicity that this prestigious award has garnered for the hotel,” says Michael Brennan, General Manager, Killarney Hotels Ltd. “The Gold Medal Awards are the top awards for the Irish hospitality industry and are the ‘must have award’ for industry professionals. With so many other great contenders, it is gratifying to know that we are among the best in the industry. We hope that this award will demonstrate to our existing guests and spa members that our commitment to excellence remains firm.”

SPONSORED BY

Jennifer McKenna (left) and Magda Dabrowska receive the award from Michael McGuinness of Robert Roberts.

THE CROWNE PLAZA IRELAND’S GUEST EXPERIENCE

The Crowne Plaza Dublin took the top honours in the Ireland’s Guest Experience category. “Our guests are truly delighted for us!” says Jennifer McKenna, Director of Sales & Marketing, Crowne Plaza Hotels & Resorts. “The hotel market can be very competitive so it will be great to be able to use the award as evidence of the high levels of service at the hotel. We have already made some plans to advertise this great achievement and it will certainly play a part in our marketing campaign for the next 12 months.”

SPONSORED BY

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Christine Murphy and Ramunas Sukutis of Mount Juliet Estate with their award.

Gold Medal Awards judge and Hotel & Catering Review contributor Mary O’Callaghan with John O’Dowd of Fire restaurant in Dublin’s Mansion House.

MOUNT JULIET ESTATE IRELAND’S FOUR STAR HOTEL Mount Juliet Estate was named as Ireland’s Four Star Hotel.

“We were really surprised and delighted about this because our refurbishment hasn’t been completed so we didn’t think it was our year,” says Acting General Manager Christine Murphy. “However, the judges mentioned that they had a really positive service experience and that they could see that our refurbishment programme was well underway, so we are very proud of that win. In fact, a few guests at the Gold Medal Awards said that they thought we were a five star hotel, which was very flattering!”

Pamela O’Hanlon and Josefin Andersson of Saba restaurant.

Galgorm Resort & Spa’s Emma Hegarty and Ashley King receive their award from Sodexo Client Relationship Director Billy Perkins.

GALGORM RESORT & SPA

Michelle Maguire (left) and Maria McEnery (far right) of Ireland’s Blue Book with Kate Kavanagh of Seafield Golf & Spa Hotel.

IRELAND’S HOTEL SPA – FOUR STAR, SPONSORED BY SODEXO

Co Antrim’s Galgorm Resort & Spa claimed the top prize in the Ireland’s Hotel Spa – Four Star category at this year’s awards.

“We have been inundated with congratulations from our guests through our social channels following the win,” says Beth Greenan, Head of Sales & Marketing at Galgorm Resort & Spa. “We hope that this award win will broaden our brand awareness nationally throughout Ireland and drive bookings from outside of Northern Ireland. All award wins play a significant role in our marketing of the resort and to win such a prestigious accolade will certainly boost our marketing efforts.”

SPONSORED BY

Jerry O’Sullivan of Noel Recruitment (left) presents the award to TJ Mulcahy and Niall Rochford of Ashford Castle.

ASHFORD CASTLE IRELAND’S FIVE STAR HOTEL

Ashford Castle in Cong, Co Mayo, claimed the top award in this category. “We were thrilled with the win,” says Ashford Castle’s Sales and Marketing Director Paula Carroll. “We are confident that the win in this category will have a positive impact on our business, particularly on our business in the Irish market. Coming into the winter period, we will most certainly be using it in our marketing campaigns. At the moment our customer base is largely American but that tends to alter from October onwards so we are expecting feedback on our award win from customers over the winter months and beyond.”

SPONSORED BY

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Kathleen Moran, Geraldine Ward and Ciara Ryan of Anocht restaurant.

Leonora O’Sullivan of Masterchefs with Jackie McGovern.

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CASTLEWOOD HOUSE IRELAND’S COUNTRY HOUSE & GUEST HOUSE EXPERIENCE OUR SPONSORS

“The Food Safety Professionals Association is pleased to be associated with the quality food and hospitality establishments in Ireland, particularly on The Wild Atlantic Way. We were delighted to see our clients getting their just rewards at the beautiful event on September 27th.”

Helen Heaton accepts the Country House & Guesthouse Experience award from MC Martin King.

Castlewood House scooped the top award in the Ireland’s Country House & Guest House Experience category. “We are absolutely thrilled with our win and have had so much positive feedback already from our fellow hoteliers and from our guests,” says Helen Heaton, one half of the husband and wife team who run Castlewood House in Dingle, Co Kerry. “This is also a testament to the hard work and dedication of our team here at Castlewood House. This Award will be an integral part of our marketing strategy for the 2017 season and will further elevate our status in a very competitive market.”

Mary Daly, Chairperson, The Food Safety Professionals Association

Shane McLave of Excel Recruitment presents the award to Pat O’Sullivan.

PAVILION “It was fantastic to be a part of the Gold Medal Awards again this year and a pleasure to present the Ireland’s Industrial Caterer award to Masterchefs Hospitality. It was great to see so many of our clients collecting awards and the staff in Lyrath Estate really outdid themselves.”

Shane McLave, General Manager, Excel Recruitment

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IRELAND’S INDUSTRIAL CATERER Pavilion, located in the University of Limerick, won the award for Ireland’s Industrial Caterer.

“Our customers are thrilled for us” says Pat O’Sullivan, Food and Beverage Operations Manager at the University of Limerick. “Given that it is such a well-established and recognisable awards programme, it will have a significant impact in helping us further grow the business over the coming year. Our client in University of Limerick sees the value of such awards and has circulated the news throughout the wider campus community and all our social media platforms will proudly carry the logo for a long time to come.”

SPONSORED BY

Hugh Murray of Classic Drinks presents John Kelly and Ken Harker with the award.

MOUNT JULIET ESTATE IRELAND’S FINE DINING RESTAURANT, SPONSORED BY CLASSIC DRINKS Mount Juliet Estate scooped the Ireland’s Fine Dining Restaurant award for the Lady Helen restaurant. “Ken Harker is our Executive Chef and John Kelly is our Head Chef so it was a great boost for them ahead of the Michelin stars 2016 announcement,” says Acting General Manager Christine Murphy.

“The Lady Helen was completely refurbished last year and our new restaurant in Hunters Yard will have a laid back luxury feel, in contrast to the Lady Helen experience.”

SPONSORED BY

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Claire O’Gorman receives the award from MC Martin King.

THE WESTBURY IRELAND’S CITY HOTEL, SPONSORED BY KANTAR MEDIA

The Westbury won this year’s Ireland’s City Hotel accolade.

“The Westbury is delighted to win ‘Best City Hotel’ at The Keeling’s Gold Medal Awards,” says Claire O’Gorman, Marketing Manager, The Westbury. “This is a true reflection of the level of service and attention to detail demonstrated by our team. We are very grateful to everyone who voted for us.”

SPONSORED BY

John Burke receives his award from MC Martin King.

OUR SPONSORS

JOHN BURKE IRELAND’S FRONT OF HOUSE TEAM MEMBER John Burke, Managing Director of The Armada Hotel in west Clare, was named as Ireland’s Front of House Team Member .“The calibre of the entrants was certainly inspiring and it will motivate us all to work hard to get back to the awards again next year,” says John. “It is an achievement that we are very proud of and it will ensure that we raise our standards to meet customer expectations. Hopefully, as a result of our win, the guest experience will continue to improve, and that’s the best marketing we could hope for.”

“The Keeling’s Gold Medal Awards offered Febvre the ideal opportunity to showcase our wines, carefully selected to match the dinner menu.

Congratulations to all the winners and especially to Ettienne van Vrede of Hayfield Manor Hotel who won the Wine Experience award.”

Therese O’Toole, National On Trade Key Accounts Manager, Febvre.

Jason Keegan and Shirley Collins of Sodexo Ireland receive their award from Keelings Farm Fresh’s Martin O’Sullivan.

SODEXO

IRELAND’S SITE CONTRACT CATERER Sodexo Ireland claimed the top prize in the Ireland’s Site Contract Caterer category for their catering operation at Paypal. “We entered the site in PayPal because we believed it was truly a strong contender,” says Sodexo Ireland’s Country President, Margot Slattery. “Sodexo and the client have invested hugely in the site so the external benchmark that the award represents was very welcome and appreciated as recognition for what our on-site team has achieved.”

SPONSORED BY

Anocht Proprietor Kathleen Moran is presented with the award by Billy Orr of Keelings Farm Fresh.

ANOCHT IRELAND’S CASUAL DINING EXPERIENCE Anocht in Co Kilkenny won Ireland’s Casual Dining Experience award. “We have been receiving terrific feedback from customers,” says Anocht’s Marketing Manager Ciara Ryan. “Many first time customers were excited to book a table on hearing the news. This will hopefully continue to mean booked out weekends, strengthening our reputation and encouraging more business from further afield. The win should keep staff morale and enthusiasm high and I will be including our winners badge on all promotional materials going forward until we are back at the awards next year!”

Margot Slattery, Country President, Sodexo Ireland

SPONSORED BY

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“Congratulations to the Europe and to Galgorm on their welldeserved wins.

As a provider of services that aim to improve the quality of life at work, it was a delight for Sodexo to recognise those hotels that aim to provide the best in a quality of life service for leisure time.”

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OUR SPONSORS Sunil Ghai and Benny Jacob receive the Newcomer Award from Martin King.

“The Gold Medal Awards was a terrific event.

All of us here at Classic Drinks are proud to be associated with it. Lyrath Estate was a brilliant setting. The hotel did a great job and provided delicious food on the night. Already looking forward to next year!”

Hugh Murray, Director, Classic Drinks

PICKLE RESTAURANT IRELAND’S NEWCOMER RESTAURANT

Brian Baldwin and Matthew Carrick of Castle Leslie Estate with their award.

Pickle Restaurant in Dublin claimed the top prize in the Ireland’s Newcomer Restaurant category. “If you are doing something very quietly and people never know about it then it can take a long time to bring business in,” says Chef Sunil Ghai. “With awards, people get to know you and they are prepared to give your operation a try and if they have a worthwhile experience they will come back and tell people. The logo will be on the website so when people go into the history of the restaurant, it will be there forever.”

CASTLE LESLIE ESTATE IRELAND’S HOTEL BREAKFAST

“Robert Roberts were delighted to sponsor Ireland’s Guest Experience award this year, as well as the teas and coffees at the gala dinner.

The Gold Medal Awards was a great night.”

Michael McGuinness, Key Account Manager, Robert Roberts

Castle Leslie Estate in Co Monaghan won the Ireland’s Hotel Breakfast award. “We have been delighted with the messages of congratulations and well wishes from our customers,” says Eimear Winters, Sales and Marketing Manager. “It will hopefully encourage more people to book with us and increase repeat business, as awards are always seen as a huge endorsement, and proof of the exceptional service and great work our staff are doing at Castle Leslie Estate. The win will definitely form part of our marketing strategy for 2017.”

The Q Café team of Breda Quigley, Mary Reid, Laura Olson, and Ursula Swords receive their award from Martin King.

THE Q CAFÉ COMPANY IRELAND’S HEALTHCARE CATERER The Q Café Company at the Sports Surgery Clinic was victorious in the Ireland’s Healthcare Caterer category.

“We have had a fantastic response to our win, with our customers and clients genuinely pleased that the team had received recognition for the great service and food that they deliver every day,” says Laura Olson, Head of Business Development and Operations at the Q Café Company. “We believe that winning this award affirms the fresh and exciting approach that The Q Café Company has taken in the healthcare sector over the last few years and will help the growth of our business in this key sector.”

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SUPPLY

LINE ESSENTIAL PRODUCT KNOWLEDGE

A medium Honeycomb Mocha from the Matthew Algie range.

TORRES

PRESTIGE WINES FOR PREMIUM LISTS

As Ireland’s number one Spanish wine brand (Nielsen), Torres has attracted increasing critical interest of late for their diverse range of premium wines. For example, there is the uniqueness of Fransola, an oak-fermented sauvignon blanc, and Milmanda, a Burgundian-style chardonnay from an eponymous 12th century Catalan estate. The family-owned company has also been making waves with its supple Celeste from Ribera del Duero, and its mineral Salmos from Priorat, not forgetting their iconic single-vineyard Mas La Plana cabernet sauvignon that revolutionised Spanish wine and once beat Latour in a blind tasting. In other words, there is no better time to find a place for the prestige wines of Torres on any premium wine list.

For more details, visit www.findlaterws.ie

MATTHEW ALGIE

ESPRESSO WAREHOUSE CATALOGUE

Independent coffee roaster, Matthew Algie, is celebrating winter with its new 2016 Espresso Warehouse catalogue.

From tea and hot chocolate, to snacks, syrups and coffee bar kit, Espresso Warehouse supplies ‘everything but the coffee’ to operators and distributors across Europe. The latest line-up includes 11 winter warmers, along with all the ingredients needed to create them. Tea lovers will be kept satisfied with the expanded range of Suki pyramid teabags and the Suki tea kit range. Espresso Warehouse also offers a range of equipment to help operators create the perfect serves for their customers all year round.

For a copy of the new Espresso Warehouse catalogue, visit www.espressowarehouse.com.

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QIKSERVE & POSTECH

POCKET WAITER FOR CUSTOMERS Mobile order and payment specialist QikServe has signed a distribution agreement with point-of-sale systems provider POStech which will see POStech provide QikServe’s patented ‘Waiter in Your Pocket’ technology to its hospitality clients across Ireland. QikServe lets guests order and pay for hospitality services direct from their smartphones. QikServe is available as a standalone, customer-branded app or can be fully integrated into hospitality operators’ existing mobile apps and POS platforms.

POStech supplies electronic POS systems to a number of high profile clients in the hospitality sector, including The K-Club, Captain America’s, Dalata Group, McGettigans, Radisson Hotels, and other large hotel groups across Ireland.

For further information, visit www.qikserve.com.

CATERING REVIEW | OCTOBER 2016

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Complete Wine Solutions

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Febvre & Co has been at the forefront of the Irish wine trade for over 50 years and the quest for quality and integrity has never waned. Our portfolio proudly carries the names of some of the top wineries and winemakers in the world. It’s what makes choosing any type of wine for your restaurant or bar, including the most challenging and complex, remarkably simple.

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Commercial

PROFILE

TRAINING FOR

THE FUTURE THERE’S A LOT TO TAKE INTO ACCOUNT WHEN YOU ARE CREATING A PREMIUM WINE OFFERING – AND STAFF TRAINING IS AN OFTEN OVERLOOKED, YET ESSENTIAL, ELEMENT FOR HOSPITALITY OPERATORS TRYING TO ESTABLISH AN ABOVE-AVERAGE SERVICE.

W

hen you are considering establishing a premium wine service there are many aspects of the service that must be factored into your business – selecting the appropriate glassware, carafes, and decanters, POS displays, preservation systems, and lots more, apart from the wine itself. However, Findlater Wine & Spirit Group recognises that effective training of staff in all elements of wine service is key to providing a complete and profitable wine experience for consumers. That is why Findlater is the only drinks distributor in Ireland with a dedicated Education and Development Manager who travels the country offering bespoke training to their customers.

Noel Tymlin is a well-known face in the wine trade and has been in the business for over 35 years. Holder of a WSET Diploma level, he has tutored everyone from industry professionals to trade newcomers, and from people with years of experience to those learning about wine for the first time. Noel’s famous, trade-centred training schedules are tailored to each outlet and include interactive

selling sessions that focus on wine service from end to end.

No two sessions are the same, as each Findlater customer is treated to training that fits perfectly with their clientele, the drinks offering, the current level of staff knowledge, and other elements that may be bespoke to that particular customer.

The sessions include tutorials on wine service procedure, an often-overlooked but essential aspect of an outlet’s offering. The importance of bottle presentation, correct pouring techniques, and service etiquette are all highlighted and refined in a role play format that fully immerses the staff. And, of course, all attendees receive a tutored tasting through the wines listed at the venue, ensuring that all relevant staff are fully versed on the entire range of wines they offer, and not just a small number of fast-moving bottles.

The backgrounds of the listed wines are explained thoroughly and given in context to both each other and the wider trade so that the full scope of the

offering is fully understood by all employees.

Training, among other benefits, helps with staff confidence, making them more comfortable with handling wine and at ease discussing it. This makes for a more pleasurable experience for the customer. It also ensures that the right wines are matched appropriately to the food, which not only benefits the consumer, but also the kitchen, as all too many good dishes have been ruined by inappropriate pairings. It also gives staff

every opportunity to upsell throughout the list, as opposed to falling back on the house red or house white cliché, resulting in higher margins and better stock rotation for the outlet.

A better bottom line, more confident staff and satisfied customers: training isn’t just an optional add-on to your business, it’s essential.

GET TRAINED UP Simply speak to your local FindlaterWine & Spirit Group Wine Specialist. Phone us on 01 404 7300 or email us on info@findlaterws.ie to register your interest in the programme.

Findlater Wine & Spirit Group, 79 Broomhill Road, Tallaght, Dublin 24 Tel: +353 (0) 1 404 7300 • Fax: +353 (0) 1 404 7311 • Email: info@findlaterws.ie • Website: www.findlaterws.ie

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INTERVIEW

Putting on

A

shortage of school-leavers aiming for a career in hospitality, particularly in the culinary area, is an ongoing problem for our industry. “When I came out of Cathal Brugha Street I knew I wanted to be a chef but that isn’t happening any more for whatever reason, so the industry is always struggling to find people who will make a career out of being a chef,” says Matt.

“Since taking up my new role here at Carton House in June I’ve been organising for our kitchen staff to do cooking classes in their downtime. We would order a side of cow and bring in our cooks and kitchen assistants that aren’t highly skilled as yet and show them what a side of a cow looks like and break down its four quarters. You won’t see that unless you go to a cookery school and not every cookery school will give students that experience, so we will show them how to do that and we will order some chickens and they learn how to handle those. All of this personal training will be on the job and I believe that it is a great way to bring people up through the ranks. They will

THE RITZ in

KILDARE Carton House Executive Chef Matt Murphy returned to Ireland following an impressive career with Ritz Carlton and a stint as owner of the number one Irish pub in the US. He talks to Maev Martin about his unique approach to kitchen management.

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INTERVIEW

THEY (COOKS AND KITCHEN ASSISTANTS) WILL DO THE HEAVY DUTY WORK OF LIFTING THE POTS AND CHOPPING INGREDIENTS BUT WE ALSO WANT THEM TO LEARN THE FINER DETAILS SO THEY CAN PROGRESS IN THEIR CAREER AND CONTRIBUTE EVEN MORE TO THE BUSINESS.

With that in mind, I see opportunities going forward for having fun with food at Carton House, including blindfold dining courses, and a 20 mile radius menu, which would reinforce the quality of the local produce that we are working with.”

do the heavy duty work of lifting the pots and chopping ingredients but we also want them to learn the finer details so they can progress in their career and contribute even more to the business. I started in the Dalkey Island Hotel (now an apartment block) as a kitchen porter a long time ago.

Some of the best cooks are kitchen porters because they are the guys who are watching the chefs in the kitchen every day.”

Apart from on-the-job training, Matt is keen to forge some new partnerships with producers. “I’m looking at partnering with a good meat producer to bring the property back to its roots,” he says. “I want to partner with someone who is

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producing the cattle and there are a couple of people out there now that I want to talk to about using their beef. It is the same with the produce – we all have to use the regular suppliers that are delivering everywhere in Dublin, but for our fine dining restaurant, The Linden Tree, I want to work with a few specialty farmers and highlight them on the menu.” When it comes to his approach to cooking, Matt likes to get out of the kitchen and talk to the customer. “A lot of the time chefs are hidden at the back and don’t want to talk to the diners but I don’t like that approach,” he says. “I think you need to get to know your diner and build a close relationship.

RESTAURANT OPENINGS Matt has delivered a number of large and challenging projects during his time with the Ritz Carlton Group, which he joined in 2000, taking over the management of Victor’s restaurant in the Ritz Carlton in New Orleans. “This was their fine dining restaurant and I became the Chef de Cuisine and I ran all five of their food outlets,” he says. “The Ritz Carlton in New Orleans was three hotels in one – you had the main hotel with 500 rooms, their club level (premium level) hotel, the Maison Orleans, which was very upscale with 100 rooms, including private lounges, and their casual hotel operation with 230 odd rooms, which was a four star property, so it was a very different proposition to the hotel configuration in Ireland. It was a varied experience featuring a mix of catering, from butler service in the Maison to buffet service in the casual hotel. After the hurricane hit New Orleans the hotel closed and I stayed on for the reopening. While the hotel was preparing to re-open, I managed a number of other openings for the Ritz Carlton Group, including the Ritz Carlton in the Cayman Islands.

I then stayed on for three months with the internationally acclaimed chef and co-owner of Le Bernardin, the top rated restaurant in New York, Eric Ripert. He

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INTERVIEW

THE ARTISAN FOOD MOVEMENT WAS ONLY BEGINNING WHEN I LEFT IRELAND AND NOW IT IS FLOURSHING...IN LOUISIANA I WAS TRYING TO WORK TO GET GRASS-FED BEEF ON THE MENUS AND IT WASN’T EASY BECAUSE OF THE LOBBY GROUPS WHO WANT TO CONTROL SUPPLY IN A CERTAIN WAY. was overseeing the design, development and operation of two new restaurants for the Ritz Carlton Group - Blue, a fine dining seafood restaurant, and Periwinkle, an al fresco Mediterranean dining experience. I worked with him on the delivery of food from the mainland and on organising the purchasing of food and locally sourcing ingredients. I also helped open the Ritz Carlton in Powerscourt and in Moscow - I was the liaison between the restaurant side and the Ritz Carlton side.

Running a restaurant is a lot different to running a restaurant in a hotel so you have to understand both sides and then marry the two together. I would help to alleviate some of the stress that goes with that.”

ACCLAIMED GASTRO PUB Matt completed his decade long stint with the Ritz Carlton Group in 2010 and opted for a complete change of direction in his career. He decided to open an upscale Irish pub. “I think every chef has the aim of opening their own restaurant so I decided to go for it and open a gastro pub,” he says.

“I opened the Irish House Gastro Pub in New Orleans in the summer of 2011, which was voted the number one Irish pub in the US by Fox News Leisure in 2015.”

The Irish House Gastro Pub was listed in Forbes magazine in 2014 as being among the top five places in the US to visit on St Patrick’s Day and was also named in the top 10 Irish pubs in America by online lifestyle website Gayot.com in 2015. In fact, Matt became well known stateside as a result of his many TV appearances on The Today Show, E Network and The Food Channel.

WHAT A DIFFERENCE A DECADE MAKES So, has he noticed any major changes in Irish hospitality since he returned from his stint Stateside? “When I came back this summer I saw some big changes but changes were already happening when I was in Ireland opening the Ritz Carlton in Powerscourt,” he says. “The big thing that I noticed was the diverse workforce in the kitchen at Powerscourt, which was great, and I see that even more so now in the few months since I’ve come back. When I worked in La Stampa in 1996/97 and in Ashford Castle in 1994 it was a mainly Irish workforce. Also, hospitality businesses are using a lot more technology and more prepared foods are being served in restaurants and other catering businesses. I visited a local market recently and encountered a lady who is making dandelion honey and taking birch and turning it into

a birch vinegar and this is using ingredients that are indigenous to Ireland. The artisan food movement was only beginning when I left Ireland and now it is flourishing and the Irish restaurant industry is supporting that. In Louisiana I was trying to work to get grass-fed beef on the menus and it wasn’t easy because of the lobby groups who want to control supply in a certain way. However, foodie people are pushing the healthy food agenda in the US. They want fresh fish caught out of the sea, not something farmed and fed GMO corn. I try to eat organic as much as possible – processed food has a lot of preservtive and nitrates so I choose to eat very clean. A lot of people now want clean food, not something that goes through 30 steps before it gets to your plate.”

MORE COMFORT, LESS FINE DINING Matt believes that the days of multiple restaurants striving to reach the fine dining level are numbered. “The food industry has moved to the side of comfort food and the margins are very tight in fine dining,” he says. “A lot of restaurants are now operating at the white table cloth level. Many of these restaurants are not selling themselves as fine dining operations but the quality of the food is just as good. Fine dining won’t go away but it won’t grow to any great extent and will probably contract a bit because the restaurants at the medium level have really upped their game.”

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PROFILE

Head Barman Alan Moore.

The Coburg Brasserie.

Lemuel’s Writer’s Block cocktail.

NEW

LOOK

Conrad Dublin recently unveiled the final elements of a major €13m refurbishment programme that has been heavily inspired and influenced by Dublin’s literary culture and local heritage.

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T

aking less than 10 months and at a cost of €13m, one of the capital’s leading luxury hotels is almost unrecognisable following its makeover, which has elevated the property to a sophisticated, contemporary hotel. The renovation programme features a stylish new design for the 192 guest bedrooms and suites, a full makeover of the Presidential Suite, as well as the opening of a new, all-day brasserie with a new ground floor lounge and bar. Guests will also notice a smart and welcoming new lobby area. “There

is a significant contrast between the old and the new-look Conrad Dublin and every guest room and suite will have its own story to tell,” says General Manager Martin Mangan. “Inspiration comes from all quarters - sights and sounds, people and places - our vision was to create a storyboard that celebrates Dublin and we hope that it will, in its own way, pass on to our guests. From the moment guests walk through the doors of the redesigned Conrad Dublin, they will notice the new, sophisticated touches and how they reflect some of Dublin’s fine geographical, historic, and cultural touchpoints.” The lobby redesign has been inspired by the work

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Afternoon tea in Lemuel’s lounge and bar.

PROFILE Presidential Suite - here and below.

THE COBURG HOLDS A UNIQUE PLACE AMONG FIVE STAR HOTELS IN DUBLIN

BY DELIBERATELY STEERING CLEAR OF A FINE DINING OFFERING AND INSTEAD OFFERING A MENU WITH A MORE RELAXED VIBE. and vision of Ninian Niven, the architect of the Iveagh Gardens. It has been designed to illustrate the beauty of the Garden’s Rosarium and features an abundance of flora and natural, indigenous materials, which have been used to marry historical influences with a modern finish.

The Coburg holds a unique place among five star hotels in Dublin by deliberately steering clear of a fine dining offering and instead offering a menu with a more relaxed vibe. The brasserie also features a champagne table, which allows diners to enjoy elevated views over the restaurant and taste a selection of the finest bubbles, including Henriot, the house champagne. The Iveagh Gardens, once known as the Coburg Gardens, was once again the inspiration for the design of the new brasserie, which pays homage to the former event headquarters of the Royal Horse Bazaar.

Materials used include leather, marble, porcelain and brass, which complement the equestrian theme that is subtly woven into banquette seating, mirrors, light fixtures and artwork. The Coburg menu has been created by Head Chef, Dmitry Stroykov, who uses ingredients from many local producers and suppliers.

Menu favourites at The Coburg include seafood bouillabaisse, crab cocktail, roaring water bay rope mussels, Coburg club sandwich, and lobster and prawn ravioli.

ALL-DAY EATERIE Formerly Alex Restaurant, Conrad Dublin’s new eatery is The Coburg, a brasserie featuring an all-day menu that is locally-inspired. In stark contrast with its predecessor,

LEMUEL’S LOUNGE Lemuel’s is Conrad Dublin’s new ground floor lounge and bar and is named after the fictional voyager Lemuel Gulliver.

The bar pays tribute to the magic and curiosity of Gulliver’s Travels and is

an alternative setting for Conrad Dublin’s afternoon tea offering, which features a selection of sweet treats, the names of which have been inspired by storylines from the literary classic.

Honey Stack (sticky honey cake with honeycomb topping) is named after the moment when Gulliver gets stung by a bee and Horseshoe Shot (apple jelly, elderflower foam and shortbread) takes its inspiration from the island of Houyhnhnms, inhabited by talking horses. Guests and visitors to Lemuel’s can also enjoy a light food menu throughout the day and a cocktail bar where mixologists have created bespoke cocktails, each of which has its own story to tell such as Monkey See, Monkey Do and Writer’s Block.

REVAMPED GUESTROOMS Conrad Dublin worked with designers Fabled Studios to revamp the guestrooms. “The new guestrooms feature beautiful fabrics, a subtle colour palette of greens and greys, natural oak flooring, and finishes such as Herringbone wool carpets, and wood panelling on the walls,” says Martin Mangan. “The result is a restful sanctuary and we think that guests will love the new-look bedrooms and, indeed, the entire hotel transformation that so tastefully reflects Ireland’s rich cultural heritage.”

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INTERIOR TRENDS

Interior DESIRE WALL LAMP, www.amara.com

Tom Strother talks to Hotel & Catering Review about creating a bar and lounge design based on a legendary literary tale that is leading patrons on a journey of discovery.

Style Tip

Get into the story behind the design and create a strong narrative. That way, everything you build on has got a good reason for being there.

MAP NOTEBOOK SET, www.oakroomshop.co.uk

BRASS MODELS GLOBE, www.houseology.com TELESCOPE ON STAND, www.melodymaison.com

DARK HAMPTON BROWN WOOD TILE, www.tilestyle.ie

GREEN DELICE SOFA, www.bykoket.com

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Lemuel’s Bar & Lounge WHITE MARBLE TABLE LAMP, www.curreycodealers.com

GOLD BAR CART, www.curreycodealers.com

GOLD PLATED BRASS & MARBLE DINING TABLE, www.touchedinteriors.co.uk

Tom Strother Lemuel’s Bar & Lounge in the Hotel Conrad in Dublin, has been constructed with two major influences in mind Gulliver’s Travels and the Trinity Library.

“The table tops are lined with marble book binding paper that you’d find in the old editions of the books at the library,” says designer Tom Strother of Londonbased interior design firm, Fabled Studio.

Repeating bays incorporated within the layout of the bar and the use of antiquestyle bookshelves, mirror the similarities between Lemuel’s and the library. The Gulliver’s Travels influence is evident in the bronze, flat cut map of the world, featuring the fictitious islands discovered

by Gulliver, along with world globes and hand-gilded maps. The space is also dotted with artwork featuring different illustrations of Gulliver. “In a private smoke room at the back, there’s a number of prints from a more modern edition,” says Tom. “We then commissioned an illustrator to create pieces by the entrance

at the back, which are based on an early edition print of Gulliver’s Travels.”

LANTERN, www.ksl-living.fr

MODELS WORLD OF 1626, www.houseology.com

DARK WOOD BOOKCASE,

www.oficinainglesa.com

02/11/2016 10:50

Supreme Service AT KILKENNY ESTATE CHRISTINE MURPHY, ACTING GENERAL MANAGER OF MOUNT JULIET ESTATE, THIS YEAR’S SUPREME WINNERS IN THE KEELINGS FARM FRESH GOLD MEDAL AWARDS, TALKS TO MAEV MARTIN ABOUT THE HOTEL’S EVOLVING FOOD OFFERING. Q: You are in the middle of a major refurbishment programme. Can you update me on the progress to date and on when the entire works are likely to be completed?

A: The Hunters Yard area of the Estate will be refurbished over the next nine months. This multi-million euro investment is a very exciting project that involves the addition of 93 new bedrooms, some of which will be suites. We will also extend the current Kendals restaurant, transforming it into a conference and events hall suitable for 210 guests. We will add a new restaurant for up to 140 guests and we plan on redesigning the health club and treatment suites to create a leading spa and pampering destination in Ireland.

Preliminary works have already begun in this area and we hope to have the whole project finished by the end of 2017.

Q: Hunters Yard will be a complete contrast to the Lady Helen. What are you hoping to achieve with this new outlet?

A: The new restaurant will seat up to 140 and it will be an all-day dining venue. The food and beverage offering

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will be a fresh modern twist on classic dishes.

A: What are your top priorities in your new role as Acting General Manager at the Estate?

A: My key objectives over the next 12 months are to oversee the rebuild of the Hunters Yard and the development of the Paul McGinley Golf Academy with our golf operations team.

Our ambition is to grow our domestic and international business.

Additionally, we hope to build on the successes of 2016 - the Supreme Award in the Gold Medal Awards and the retention of our Michelin Star - in order to further secure Mount Juliet Estate as Ireland’s leading country estate.

Q: How do you work with Keelings Farm Fresh to source and manage your stock of fresh fruit and vegetables?

A: Each evening we review our fruit and vegetable

Christine Murphy, Acting General Manager, Mount Juliet Estate, with the Keelings Farm Fresh Gold Medal Award, Colm Bury, Managing Director Keelings Farm Fresh, and the winning team from Mount Juliet Estate.

requirements for the following day. We call Keelings, make the order, and our delivery of fresh fruit and vegetables arrives the next day. The deliveries are always top quality and the ordering process is flawless.

Q: Who are the local Kilkennybased suppliers that you work with on a regular basis?

A: Mount Juliet Estate are proud to include seasonally relevant, locally sourced ingredients from local suppliers such as Goatsbridge Trout Farm, Riversfield Farm, Kilkenny Rosé Veal and Mileeven Fine Foods. This allows us to take advantage of the wealth of quality Irish meats and fresh produce that is available on our doorstep.

Dublin: +353 (0)1 895 5301

Wexford: +353 (0)53 9147447

Email: catering@keelingsfarmfresh.com

Cork: + 353 (0)21 4968088

Belfast: +44 2890324236

Web: www.keelings.ie/corporate

02/11/2016 10:39

FOOD HEROES LEFT: Emer Fitzpatrick and Russell Hart, The Stop B&B Galway. BELOW: Food On The Edge team members Drigín Gaffey and JP McMahon with Gillian Westbrook, Irish Organic Farmers and Growers Association, at the programme launch for Food On The Edge 2016

ABOVE: Olivia Collins, Food On The Edge, with Éanna Hassett and Philippe Farineau from Ashford Castle. RIGHT: Julianne Barrett and Lauragh Quinn from Golden Egg.

Connecting

CULINARY COMMUNITIES

Food on the Edge 2016 took place on October 24th and 25th in the Town Hall Theatre in Galway city. Hotel & Catering Review looks at what this year’s event had in store for Ireland’s chefs.

O

ne of the most prestigious events in Ireland’s food calendar, this year’s Food on the Edge heard from over 50 expert speakers.

Topics for discussion were variations on the overriding Food On The Edge core theme of The Future of Food. The event featured a panel discussion on ‘The Future of Irish Food,’ while a Canadian counterpart panel debated ‘The Future of Canadian Food.’

The individual talks ranged from Massimo Bottura’s elusively titled ‘Cooking: A Call To Action’, to Douglas McMaster’s ‘Zero Waste - Literal or Philosophical’.

Visionary chef Massimo Bottura is at the vanguard of a new generation of Italian chefs.

His internationally renowned three Michelin star restaurant, Osteria Francescana, is currently number one on The World’s 50 Best Restaurants list.

This year he was awarded European Chef of the Year for his work in opening the Refettorio Ambrosiano kitchen in Milan, which serves meals prepared with re-purposed food for guests from homeless shelters.

In August he co-founded Refettorio Gastromotiva, a community kitchen in the heart of Rio de Janeiro in order to transform food surplus from the Olympic Village into nutritious and tasty meals for those in need.

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Sheffield born Douglas McMaster fell into cooking after dropping out of school and, like a lot of cooks, began in the pot wash. He won ‘Yorkshire Young Chef of the Year’ in 2008 and the ‘BBC Young Chef of the Year’ award in 2009. In 2012, Douglas was named as ‘Britain’s Most Irreverent Chef ’ at the first Y.B.F. Awards, cooking a tasting menu comprised of food that would have been ‘wasted’.

He is Executive Chef and joint owner of ‘Silo by Joost’ in Melbourne, the world’s first waste free café. Douglas was out to prove that a sustainable business model is financially viable and that ecological farming can feed the world.

Denmark’s Christian Puglisi talked about ‘Integrating Cooking and Farming,’ while New York’s Daniel Burns’ presentation focused on ‘Food & Beer - Exploring the Possibilities.’ Christian Puglisi’s passion for a career in cooking led him into some of the world’s most influential kitchens, including Noma and elBulli, working with master chefs Rene Redzepi and Ferran Adria. Together with co-patron and Restaurant Manager Kim Rossen, Christian opened restaurant Relae in 2010 in Copenhagen.

The restaurant was awarded its first Michelin star in

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FOOD HEROES LEFT: Agata Lisia and Gosia Lagowska from The Nest, Salthill, Galway. BELOW: JP Mc Mahon (centre), Symposium Director of Food On The Edge, with Karen Jones and Andrew Drysdale, Radisson Blu Hotel, Galway.

#Irelands AncientEast

SERVING UP IRELAND’S FOOD STORY

Ruth Hegarty and JP McMahon from Food On The Edge with Sean Martin, Bunzl McLaughlin.

2012 and a nomination as the 56th best restaurant in the world, according to San Pellegrino’s 50 best restaurant list.

Relae is the only Michelin starred restaurant in the world with an organic certification.

Daniel Burns is Chef/Partner of Torst and Luksus in Brooklyn, New York. Torst, which opened in March 2013, is a worldrecognised craft beer bar that occupies the front portion of the building and Luksus, which has one Michelin star, is a 16-seat seasonal tasting menu restaurant tucked in behind a sliding door in the back. Luksus, which opened in July 2013, offers beer pairings only and is focused on bringing beer into the realm of fine dining.

Daniel spent six years in Europe, from 2004 to 2009, working at Fat Duck, St John and Noma, before moving to New York to open the test kitchen for Momofuku as head of R&D. His first cookbook, Food & Beer, was released by Phaidon in May.

Paul Flynn, The Tannery restaurant, Dungarvan, with Janes Stokes, Fáilte Ireland.

Meanwhile, Ireland’s Ancient East and the south east recently received a major international boost as counties Kilkenny and Waterford played host to a group of influential media from Germany, France, Belgium and Sweden. The trip, organised

by Fáilte Ireland in conjunction with Tourism Ireland, allowed the journalists, with a combined circulation of over 1.3 million, to enjoy a culinary showcase in counties Kilkenny and Waterford. The itinerary was created by Fáilte Ireland and started at the Highbank Organic Apple Farm in Kilkenny before moving on to the award-winning Lady Helen restaurant in Mount Juliet, an exploration of Jerpoint Park, and a meeting with producers on the Kilkenny Food Trail, as well as a visit to the Truffle Fairy, School of Food and the Goatsbridge Trout Farm in Thomastown. The group then visited Ardmore in Co Waterford and spent time with Andrew Malcolm, the Cliff House Hotel’s resident forager, before meeting Willie Drohan and his brother-in-law Aidan Dunwoody of Comeragh Mountain Lamb. They then headed to Barrons Bakery, the oldest ovens in Ireland, to see how bread is made with Esther Barron. Next up was Lismore Castle, gardens and art gallery and its heritage centre, with refreshments at Summerhouse, home to Lismore Food Company and Hartys Oyster farm. The tour also took in the Tannery Restaurant and Townhouse with Paul and Maire Flynn and a visit to Dungarvan Brewing Company with one of Fáilte Ireland’s food champions Claire Dalton, before finishing off with some seaweed foraging with Marie Power, aka, The Sea Gardener.

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Open each Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Bank Holiday Sunday | 5pm until late Early bird available ď Ą24.50 for 2 courses | ď Ą28.50 for 3 courses Booking 056 7722118 or info@kilkennydesign.com | www. kilkennydesign.com anocht

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01/11/2016 10:29

700 YEARS OF WINE HISTORY The story of the Frescobaldi family is closely linked to the history of Italy

Unit 5 OC Commerical Park, Little Island, Cork.

Tel: 021 451 0066 info@classicdrinks.ie www.classicdrinks.ie 240709_2L_Classic Drinks_H&C.indd 1

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02/11/2016 12:41

Mentoring

EDUCATION & TRAINING

IN IRISH HOSPITALITY There has been much debate in our industry about the skills deficit across a number of different disciplines. This month, Niall O’Halloran, Purchasing Manager with the Rochestown Park Hotel in Cork, examines the concept of mentoring as a part-solution to the skills constraints in Irish hospitality.

T

he concepts of coaching and mentoring are viewed from a variety of perspectives. They may be influenced by the sector in which they are applied or the position of the participants. The concepts also receive differing degrees of analysis from academia and industry experts. However, in my experience, coaching relationships are generally short-term in nature, task orientated and performance driven.

Quite often, once the coachee has acquired the necessary skills, the relationship concludes. In many instances, coaching is provided by a professional firm for a fee. In others, it is provided by internal senior executives and, in most cases, it is reserved for those at the higher echelons within the organisation.

By way of contrast, mentoring has been described by many as involving an individual with the experience, knowledge, and/or skills who is able and willing to share this information with others. I believe that, in order for it to be a true mentoring scenario, it has to be voluntary in nature. If it is not voluntary, it would be more appropriately described as a formal consultancy.

Niall O’Holloran

WHAT IS A MENTOR? A mentor can be either internal or external to

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MENTORING PROGRAMMES SHOULD FORM PART OF THE ONBOARDING PROCESS AND BE AN INTEGRAL PART OF ANY EMPLOYEE’S TENURE, IRRESPECTIVE OF ITS DURATION. the mentees organisation. They focus on matters such as work-life balance, self-actualisation and, essentially, how the personal influences the professional.

The aim of a mentor, in addition to helping a mentee to navigate the politics of a profession and avoid the pitfalls, is to drive talent development. Their results are expected to bear fruit during the mentees career, not just during their current employment. Therefore, it is not unusual for mentoring relationships to last over several years or more. I believe there is a strong argument for suggesting that an aspiring professional will derive greater benefits from this mode of learning. Mentoring is proactive, unlike the coaching relationship which, in many instances, is reactive and serves to address a particular outcome.

TOO LATE TO START THE RELATIONSHIP? Nowhere should you find a definition of mentoring that suggests that the mentor should be older than the mentee, that either party should be working in a particular sector, hold a specific position, or have certain qualifications. The logic for this proposition is that, in many cases, the mentee may be more interested in the mentor’s experience than their knowledge or skills. Due to the recession, many people have migrated to different industry sectors. As a result, I believe that there is merit in the suggestion that crosssectoral mentoring can be as important as intra-sectoral or intra-organisational mentoring. The working life of the Irish population is extending, so I would suggest that reverse mentoring also has its place in business. Millennials, some of whom form part of the returning Irish, are now available to advise individuals who have decades of experience.

The inputs into the mentoring relationship necessarily influence the outcomes, particularly if the

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#About The Author mentee’s organisation is a driver of the change. The mentor develops better communication and relationship building skills. This can lead to an increase in their sense of self-worth. Furthermore, the mentor can actually learn from the mentee’s experience and sector, irrespective of their stage of maturity.

Mentees learn how to accept and filter feedback. They can also derive attitudinal, motivational and behavioural benefits. In addition, they can derive health-related outcomes, both physical and mental, that may not otherwise be achieved. From the organisation’s perspective, mentoring can be seen as a key tool in talent development and succession planning. It can also lead to reduced hiring costs and greater retention of employees.

A GOOD FIT FOR IRISH HOSPITALITY? With all that said, the question must be asked, where does the concept of mentoring fit within the Irish hospitality industry? Graduates emerging from many of our hospitality courses may receive comprehensive onboarding when commencing employment. It could be argued that this process is conformist in its design. In my opinion, onboarding does not adequately prepare the graduate to bridge the gap between academic qualification and operational excellence.

Recent reports on skills deficits within the sector lead me to believe that

Niall O’Halloran is a graduate of hospitality studies CIT (1995), the IIPMM (2005) and he holds an Honours Law Degree from UCC (2013). A member of the judging panel for the National Procurement and Supply Chain Awards, Niall lectures on Procurement Management at UCC, has given guest lectures on ‘getting inside the mind of the buyer,’ and volunteers his time to work with a number of business incubation and entrepreneurial support programmes.

mentoring programmes should form part of the onboarding process and be an integral part of any employee’s tenure, irrespective of its duration. The old culture and attitude of fearing to train for fear that `they` may leave, needs to be abandoned.

I will conclude with a number of questions.

In answering each question I would respectfully suggest that you ask yourself why? or why not??

• • • •

Are you currently being mentored?

Have you ever been mentored?

Are you currently mentoring anybody?

Have you ever mentored anybody?

Do you think enhancing the concept of mentorship is one of the solutions to the skills deficit in the hospitality sector?

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DOOR

KEY TO THE DOOR

KEY TO THE

Openings, Closures, Refurbs and Acquisitions

DALATA TO ACQUIRE DOUBLE TREE Dalata Hotel Group plc announced on September 30th that it had conditionally agreed to acquire the operating interest of the Double Tree

by Hilton Hotel in Dublin 4 for 2.5m. Deka Immobilien has conditionally agreed to purchase the freehold interest of the property from Sussex Road Nominee Ltd (as legal owner) and BNY Mellon Trust Company (Ireland) Ltd (as trustee for and on behalf of the beneficial owner, BRE Ireland Property Fund). On completion of the acquisition, Dalata will commence operations in the hotel through a 25-year operating lease agreed with Deka as the new owners of the property. When the acquisition is completed, the hotel will be rebranded as a Clayton hotel.

Dalata has also acquired Rush (Central) Ltd, which holds the freehold interest of the four star, 216-bed Clayton Hotel Cardiff, for circa 27m.

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Revenues Up 30% at

ASHFORD CASTLE Revenues at Ashford Castle increased by 30% last year following the $50m investment programme by owners Red Carnation. The hotel was closed for three months in both 2014 and 2015 to undergo extensive refurbishment and all 60 rooms have been open since August of last year. Accounts recently filed for the company show that revenues were 11.8m. However, the company took a 17.6m impairment charge last year following a commercial valuation by Savills, based largely on the hotel’s historic trading performance and cash flow. The future financial benefits expected from the refurbishment were not included in the valuation and the company described the impairment as temporary. The loss for the year was 23m, although there was an EBITDA of 269,000 in 2015, with this expected to increase significantly for 2016.

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02/11/2016 10:55

KEY TO THE DOOR

FBD SELLING TOWER TO NEVILLE HOTELS FBD Hotels and Resorts is selling the Tower Hotel in Wateford to Neville Hotels. The proceeds of the sale will be re-invested in FBD’s existing portfolio of four star hotels and resorts in Ireland and Spain – the Castleknock Hotel in Dublin, Faithlegg House Hotel and Golf Resort in Waterford, and the La Cala Resort and the Sunset Beach Club in Malaga. It will be business as usual at the Tower Hotel with no impact on existing hotel bookings or events. The Tower Hotel employs 120 fulltime staff, all of whom are unaffected by the sale. Waterford-based Neville Hotels already own the Royal Marine in Dun Laoghaire and the Kilkenny River Court Hotel.

GOLD MEDAL HOTEL ON THE MARKET Christie & Co has brought the Killeen House Hotel & Rozzers Restaurant to market with a guide price in excess of 1.95m. Located in Aghadoe, Killarney, the hotel recently won Hotel and Catering Review’s Keelings Farm Fresh Gold Medal Award in the Ireland’s Three Star Hotel category. Comprising 23 guest bedrooms, the hotel is currently rated as number three of 102 hotels in Co Kerry on TripAdvisor with the attached Rozzers Restaurant being rated as the best restaurant in Killarney and number two of 526 restaurants in Kerry overall. It has also achieved a 9.5/10 rating on Booking.com, classified as ‘exceptional’. “Geraldine and I have worked hard over the last quarter century to create a unique hospitality product and we are very proud of where we have brought The Killeen House to in that period,” says Michael Rosney. “For a variety of different reasons, we feel now is the right time to put it on the market and we look forward to seeing the next chapter in the life and times of Killeen House unfolding in the years to come.”

HOTEL IBIS COMES TO MARKET

Christie & Co has been instructed to sell the Hotel Ibis Dublin. Located at Junction 9 off the M50 and opposite the Red Cow ‘Luas’ Interchange, the hotel is being presented to the market in three lots - Lot 1 comprises the hotel and the adjoining 0.81 acre site zoned residential combined, Lot 2, which is the Hotel Ibis Dublin, and Lot 3, which is the 0.81 acre site.

The hotel has 150 bedrooms with two meeting rooms and an open plan ground floor space which features the hotel reception, bar, and lounge and dining areas which can cater for approximately 100 people. It has benefitted from significant capital investment over the past 14 months, with all of the guest bedrooms upgraded to modern brand specifications. The hotel is available with the existing franchise agreement with Accor Hotels under the Ibis brand.

GREAT NATIONAL BUYS BALLYKISTEEN HOTEL Great National Hotels and Resorts has bought Ballykisteen Hotel and Golf Resort in Co Tipperary for an undisclosed sum, believed to be in excess of the 2m asking price. The four star hotel was first put up for sale in April 2015 on the instruction of Kieran Wallace of receivers KPMG. A substantial investment is now planned for the hotel and resort. GN Asset Management will come on board to manage the hotel, which first opened in 2005.

LIBERTY TO BUY THREE DUBLIN HOTELS The three Fitzpatrick Lifestyle Hotels are being bought by John Malone’s Liberty Group for 150m from hotelier Paul Fitzpatrick and backer Patron Capital. If the deal is passed by the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, it would put Liberty Group second only to Dalata in the number of rooms per night it can offer. John Malone teamed up for the deal with John Lally’s Lalco. It is understood that existing management at the hotel will stay in place post acquisition. If the deal goes through, Paul Fitzpatrick’s Beacon, Morgan and Spencer hotels will become part of the stable of hotels that includes The Westin, Intercontinental, Trinity City and the Hilton in Dublin 2.

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TECHNOLOGY

BEWARE OF BANDWIDTH SUCKING APPS

Dirk Gates, Cofounder of Xirrus, a Wi-Fi hardware and software manufacturer, looks at the challenges faced by hotels and accommodation providers in making sure guests and staff get access to fast and reliable Wi-Fi.

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any hotels and accommodation providers still struggle to offer a Wi-Fi network that is physically capable of delivering high-speed internet access, particularly in the face of extreme usage. What is required is an upfront investment in Wi-Fi network design and in quality hardware, something that might seem difficult to justify as a capital expense when there are other claims on cashflow. With money at the forefront of everyone’s mind, it’s all too easy to be swayed by unscrupulous wireless contractors that push customers into installing cheaper, but less capable, Wi-Fi networks. Literally a few months down the road, hotel owners and managers could find themselves with a network that can’t adapt to a new Wi-Fi standard or scale to meet rising demand. It is important that hotels don’t skimp on hardware and that they invest wisely to cope with growing Wi-Fi usage.

Once a hotel has appropriately addressed the issues of quality and design, it is important to understand specifically what consumes the capacity on a Wi-Fi network. The hospitality sector, because of the largely transitory nature of Wi-Fi users, was one of the first sectors of the economy to experience the bring-your-own-device (BYOD) phenomenon. BYOD brings with it the challenge of mixed usage, which combines critical education and business-related application usage (e.g. video call streaming, cloud storage, and access to company applications) with recreational usage (e.g. social media, streaming media and gaming). This means that the

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TECHNOLOGY

#App-Level Intelligence

AN APPLICATION-INTELLIGENT APPROACH...CAN LET HOTEL STAFF CREATE INDIVIDUAL USAGE POLICIES FOR LITERALLY THOUSANDS OF DIFFERENT APPLICATIONS BY IDENTIFYING THOSE THAT HOG BANDWIDTH AND ANALYSING THEIR USAGE TRENDS OVER TIME..

network must be intelligent enough to appropriately prioritise what is important and deprioritise (or even block) what is not.

WHAT CONSUMES CAPACITY? There are different types of applications that can create challenges on mixed usage Wi-Fi networks. Some examples include: Streaming media - Netflix, YouTube, Apple Music, Pandora; Cloud back-ups and updates - iCloud, Dropbox, Google Drive, iOS;.VPN - Hotspot Shield,

Ultrasurf, OpenVPN, and Social media - Instagram, Tumblr, Facebook. Streaming media remains the biggest challenge on most networks today. Bandwidth-hungry video already constitutes well over half of Internet traffic.

It will certainly continue to grow as higher resolutions gain popularity and additional services are introduced. To make things even more complicated, demand for these applications is not consistent; there are always peaks and lulls. In a hotel, for example, it is not uncommon to see Netflix traffic surge in the evening, or when it is cold and rainy outside. The second category – cloud backups and updates – can be a ‘silent but deadly’ bandwidth hog. These applications often run in the background and move gigabytes of data, often without the user even knowing. Corporate guests are not immune to this either - the auto-save function on PowerPoint, for example, can mean that large files are backed up every one or two minutes to cloud-based or file share accounts.

To address the mixed use challenge on BYOD-centric Wi-Fi networks, application-level intelligence in the Wi-Fi infrastructure proves paramount. True enterprise Wi-Fi systems must have the ability to identify, prioritise and limit applications appropriately to ensure a good user experience for those who use the network.

While most Wi-Fi networks may work well most of the time, there will always be scenarios where usage can spike, which can lead to major performance issues. An application-intelligent approach can help manage the capacity challenges that hotels face. The best of these tools can let hotel staff create individual usage policies for literally thousands of different applications by identifying those that hog bandwidth and analysing their usage trends over time. Applications or groups of applications can be prioritised, blocked or even throttled, although hotels will need to tread carefully if they are introducing blanket restrictions. Instead, they might consider introducing different policies for different sets of guests, or even different parts of the hotel (this would, of course, be entirely transparent to guests).

As the year draws to a close and the conference and holiday seasons both wrap up for another year, it is an ideal opportunity for hotel managers and owners to revisit the way in which they manage their Wi-Fi network infrastructure. So, if you haven’t taken a time out this year to think about how to improve your guests’ Wi-Fi experience, and to plan for everything that 2017 holds, now is the perfect time to do it. Wi-Fi usage will only continue to grow and the hospitality sector needs to be ready to meet that growth head on.

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BUSINESS MATTERS

T N I R P E U THE BL Having spoken to a number of hospitality businesses in Ireland’s Ancient East, consultant and trainer, Anthony Beale, is convinced that there is a blueprint for success.

I

’ve been in the hospitality industry for over 25 years so I’ve witnessed many changes in how we deliver the product. A number of events have rocked us: recessions, foot and mouth, globalisation and, more recently, the uncertainty surrounding Brexit. Unfortunately, we lost the run of ourselves during the boom when, sadly the ‘get them in and get them out’ mentality was rampant. However, the great operators of the past and today never lost sight of what being in the hospitality business is about - giving people a wonderful time and great memories. This used to be called ‘delivering service’ but today it is ‘delivering the experience.’ In my not so humble opinion they are the same. The core values of genuineness, sincerity, and wanting to always deliver your best are what the great operators have in common. Sensing what people want, having a strong vision, and being able to clearly communicate and lead were all skills employed by these leaders in their fields.

I recently interviewed 20 successful hotel, restaurant and gastro pub operators in Dublin, Meath and Louth about what they believed were the key ingredients of their success. I wanted to see if there were commonalities across the sector when it comes to creating a

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successful hospitality business. I’m happy to say that I found more similarities than differences and the exercise confirmed one of my core beliefs that ‘success has a system’ and that it leaves clues and can be predictable for anyone that follows what works.

There were stories of starting up on their own, to continuing in the family business and bringing it to the next level. It is amazing how many operators turned what most would see as failure into success. For example, Ross Lewis from Chapter One wanted to get into hotel management but failed the interview to get into Shannon - he has since been enjoying unparalleled success for over 23 years. Conor Woods from The Bay Tree Restaurant in Belvedere House B&B in Carlingford dropped out of college where he had been studying auctioneering before the food industry got a grip on him.

Jon Paul and Charly Egan from the Black Bull Inn bar and restaurant in Drogheda, Patrick Corscadden in Bellingham Castle, Des and Stephen Buckley from FX Buckley’s, Vincent and Olivia Duff of the Headfort Arms in Kells, and Roseanne Donegan of the Monasterboice Inn all took on and built up the family name, taking their businesses to the next level. For other operators, it was a case of necessity being the mother of invention.

Michael Gavigan from The Central in Navan

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and Michael Hughes from the StockHouse restaurant in Trim were both badly hit when the property crash came. They needed to start again so they decided to carve out new careers in the hospitality industry.

All of these operators understand the value of continuous learning and of improving their skillset. Pól Ó hÉannraich, former Head Chef at Dax, and his brother Páraic in Bloom Brasserie and Wine Bar on Dublin’s Baggot Street stress that discipline is integral to delivering a top-class product, whether it is two or 200, the highest level of quality and service must be consistently delivered. This opinion was echoed by Paul and Fiona McCullagh in Zucchini’s restaurant in Navan. Martin McGowan from Scholars Townhouse Hotel in Drogheda says he has learned that patience is indispensable when you are striving for success.

“You are going to have to deal with bureaucracy from time to time and you need patience for that,” said Martin. According to Michael Hughes, it is vital that business owners play to their strengths and know their weaknesses.

This was echoed by Ross Lewis, who said that picking the right experts to help you run your business was the way to ensure speedy growth.

FINANCIAL CHALLENGES All of the business owners that I interviewed spoke of the fears that they had to contend

with, including the fear of failure and embarrassment if their plans did not work. Everything was on the line for these people.

They took financial risks. They had large investments that they were not 100% sure would work out. Yet, once they made their decisions, they got stuck in. They dealt with all the obstacles head on. The more they worked, the better things worked out for them. In fact, most of the operators said that they used their fears to fuel their success. All of the hospitality operators that I interviewed faced major challenges in terms of coping with banks and creditors during the recession. They all endorsed a head-on approach as the best way forward in overcoming these obstacles. “Financial acumen is key”, said Donal McGeough from the Windsor Bar & Restaurant in Dundalk.

“Understanding your figures and your cost base and cash flow is what kept us going in the tough times.”

All of the operators agreed that finding and building the right team was a core challenge. Everyone shared a variation of the core belief that your team is everything. Deirdre from Ariel House said that 90% of the success of the business is due to the team. “They are everything,” said Vincent Duff of the Headfort Arms, while Shauna and Ann Kelly from the Corkscrew Brasserie, which is located in the Boyne Valley region of Co Louth, said that the only reason their business was so successful was the quality of the team that they had working for them.

FAMILY LIFE Great sacrifices have been made on the road to success. Time was the number one sacrifice common to all. Family life is definitely different for these operators. “We still have our family time, we just do it at different times to everyone else,” said Martin McGowan. “Without the support of my wife Jessica it would not be possible,” said Ross Lewis. Many felt lucky that they worked in the business with their family, such as the father and son team of Des and Stephen Buckley, brothers Pól and Páraic Ó hÉannraich in Bloom, and Jay and Charly Egan at the Blackbull Inn. The husband and wife teams that I interviewed were Michael and Orla Hughes, Michael and Tara Gavigan, Fiona and Paul McCullagh, and Danny and Dympna

Clockwise (l-r): Ross Lewis; quality cusine at Zucchini’s; Ariel House.

BUSINESS MATTERS Clockwise from below: Bellingham Castle; quality fare at Zucchini’s; the interior of Zucchini’s restaurant; food preparation at Zucchini’s.

TALKING HEADS Vincent Duff, Owner, Headfort Arms Hotel Patrick Curran, General Manager, Knightsbrook Hotel Patrick Corscadden, Owner, Bellingham Castle Martin McGowan, Owner, Scholars Townhouse Hotel Deirdre McDonnell, General Manager, Ariel House Michael Hughes, Owner/Partner, The StockHouse Fiona and Paul McCullagh, Owners, Zucchini’s Ann and Shauna Kelly, Owners, The Corkscrew Brasserie Conor Woods, Owner, Bay Tree Restaurant Colm Devine, General Manager, Bru Bar and Bistro Pól and Páraic Ó hÉannraich, Owners, Bloom Ross Lewis, Owner, Chapter One Michael Gavigan, Owner, The Central Philip Foster, Owner, Snailbox Restaurant Danny Fitzpatrick, Owner, Fitzpatrick’s Bar and Restaurant Michael Heaney, Owner, PJ O’Hare’s Donal McGeough, Owner, Windsor Bar & Restaurant Jay Egan, Owner, Blackbull Inn Roseanne Donegan, Owner, Monasterboice Inn Des Buckley, Owner, FX Buckley’s

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Fitzpatrick. Martin McGowan and Philip Foster work with their entire families in their businesses. The Kelly family in the Corkscrew Brasserie have no less than seven family members working together. Many were in the position of not being able to participate in the usual family occasions. “It can be tough,” said Danny Fitzpatrick from Fitzpatrick’s Restaurant. Most of the operators spent a great deal of time growing and developing their business. However, they all seemed to be genuinely happy doing what they were doing.

LIVING THEIR DREAMS “It’s never been about the money”, said Conor Woods. “I am living the dream; I am a chef owner.” Seeing customers thoroughly enjoying themselves is another great pleasure that these operators derive from their businesses, and was an aspect of their work that was highlighted by Bloom, FX Buckley’s, The Central and The StockHouse.

In fact, all of the operators that I spoke to love to see their customers having the experience they wanted to deliver. Meeting and exceeding budgets was important to Patrick Curran from Knightsbrook Hotel in

Trim, Colm Devine from Bru Bar and Bistro in Drogheda, and Deirdre McDonnell from Ariel House in Dublin 4.

DEFINITIONS OF SUCCESS The definition of success ranged from peace of mind to enjoying the buzz and bustle of a vibrant and busy premises. Loving what you do and being happy when you get out of bed were definitions that were shared with me many times. A lot of operators took great pride in what they regarded as the uniqueness of their product. Stephen and Des Buckley said that knowing they have a unique brand gives them great joy in their work. “Having my name on the place, doing my best always, and delivering” is what it’s all about for Ross Lewis, while coming out on the other side of adversity was Michael Hughes take on success. Doing what makes you happy is what motivates Michael and Tara Gavigan, while his love of meeting people is the driving force for Philip Foster from the Snailbox Restaurant in Ashbourne. This is reinforced

by Michael Heaney of PJ O’Hare’s traditional Irish pub in Carlingford who said that you have to be a people person to be successful

CATERING REVIEW | OCTOBER 2016

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BUSINESS MATTERS in the hospitality trade. For these operators the best things about being in business are the freedom to follow their ideas and visions, as well as having control over their own destinies. They all built their businesses in many ways but the common factor that came across from everyone was that consistency and word of mouth are the best forms of marketing. Many of those that I interviewed use social media very effectively, making it personal for their customers. All of them enjoy a great TripAdvisor presence, the online word of mouth. These people have been innovative in their approach, doing different things, carving out a niche. They all have ambitious plans for their futures, from the upgrading and expansion of existing facilities to the addition of more venues.

Some shared concerns were voiced, including government policy, local and national, along with Brexit. But their confidence that these obstacles and potential obstacles would not stand in the way of their plans was evident.

There were positives also – chief among them was the belief that Fáilte Ireland and Tourism Ireland had got it very right with Ireland’s Ancient East. And many of the operators were reporting increases in visitor

Anthony Beale; The Central; The Headfort Arms.

numbers as a result of this new brand.

In conclusion, if you want to be successful in the hospitality sector you need to: have a clear vision (what you want to be and achieve); have consistency in the product, in the service and with your team; love meeting people; work hard but also learn how to share the load with key people; have experts who can help you gain clarity; have the space to think strategically and develop

systems; and know that you can succeed in spite of fear. Everyone has fear but the ones that succeed still take action in spite of their fears.

About the Author: Anthony Beale is a certified business coach, consultant, and sales and service trainer for the hospitality industry. He specialises in the systemisation of businesses.

O’Grady’s ON THE PIER Seafood Restaurant specialising in Oysters, Mussels, Fresh Fish, Crabs, Scallops and Lobster

OPENING HOURS: Lunch 12:30-4:00pm | Dinner 6.00 -10.00pm Only 6km from Galway Ireland’s Wild Atlantic Way Restaurant 2016 To make a reservation or contact us:

Tel: 091-592 223 www.ogradysonthepier.com SEAPOINT, BARNA, CO, GALWAY

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OCTOBER 2016 | HOTEL

CATERING REVIEW

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A QUICK CHAT

INGREDIENT: LEMONS

“For me, they are one of the most versatile ingredients to enhance sweet or savoury dishes.”

SANDEEP SINGH

“The soft shell crab is a real winner with our diners! The contrast of textures – crispy outside, soft inside, and Asianstyle garnish sets it off beautifully.”

“We have cocktails on the terrace, express lunch for timechallenged executives, healthy salads and juices, and indulgent desserts.”

FAVOURITE DISH: AN EXCELLENT CURRY

“It is the ultimate comfort food after a busy shift or feast for a family gathering, made according to traditional recipes handed down from my family.”

“Our food philosophy at Wilde centres around simplicity and respect for ingredients.”

WISH LIST: HANDMADE KNIFE

“A hand-made knife by Fingal Ferguson in Gubbeen, West Cork there was never a good knife made of bad steel.”

“We only use fresh, locally produced, seasonal ingredients to create our unique desserts which are composed of many different elements and textures.”

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Hotel & Catering Review’s Orla Connolly spoke with Executive Chef Sandeep Singh about the importance of quality produce and his latest Wilde menu creation.

CHEF: BARRY FITZGERALD

“Barry Fitzgerald in Bastible, who is a relative newcomer to the Dublin dining scene.

He returned from London and opened on the South Circular Road, bringing his unique culinary flair to Dublin 8.”

CATERING REVIEW | OCTOBER 2016

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Jason Clifford, Hotel Manager proudly holding his award with the team before refurbishment begins

MAJOR TRADE ANNOUNCEMENT The Dunloe is delighted to have received its latest accolade of

IRELAND’S FAMILY FRIENDLY HOTEL 2016

which was awarded at the Keelings Farm Fresh Gold Medal Awards The hotel is also thrilled to announce an exciting and substantial refurbishment of the hotel’s public areas including the lobby, lounges and restaurants.

Having already closed its doors for the Winter, the hotel will remain closed for 2017, re-opening in Spring 2018 to accommodate the extensive transformation.

Jason Clifford, Hotel Manager and his team look forward to welcoming everyone back to The Dunloe in 2018.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT THE DUNLOE, BEAUFORT, KILLARNEY, CO KERRY Tel: 064 66 44 111 • Email: reservations@thedunloe.com or visit our website: www.thedunloe.com 241320_1C_Dunloe_AMA_H&C.indd 1

02/11/2016 12:19

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