WHEN PADDY MET MARGARET…


What happens when Paddy Cosgrave, founder of the Web Summit, and Margaret Jeffares, founder of Good Food Ireland, put their creative and intelligent heads together? In 2013, a highly successful collaboration between two of Ireland’s most innovative movers and shakers was conceived, when Paddy met Margaret –  on a farm visit! The pair started talking.  Fireworks went off.  Just ten days later, The Web Summit and Food Summit with Good Food Ireland was born.  Good Food Ireland fed thousands of international delegates, speakers, media and special guests at the Web Summit event in Dublin in early November 2013.  It was quite some achievement, with the Good Food Ireland family of chefs, cooks, producers and hospitality establishments providing a unique Irish ingredient led experience to this international audience.  
 
Taking the world by storm for the second year running, this year’s Web Summit and Food Summit with Good Food Ireland promises to be bigger and better than its inaugural event of 2013. Around twenty thousand visitors are expected to attend Web  Summit 2014, which has a Speakers list peppered with some of the biggest names in the world of modern technology. Food Summit with Good Food Ireland hosts the Food Technology Stage, where esteemed food journalists and writers come together with celebrity chefs and heads of companies to provide a series of talks, workshops and discussions.  Everything from Man Versus Food to 3D printing technology for the food industry. A programme any food loving visitor will not want to miss. While all this is going on, the Good Food Ireland network of Members will be working all out to provide an array of gourmet delights for delegates and visitors, as well as hosting a number of evening Food Showcases and Good Food Ireland Pop-Up Restaurant events. A big ask? Not in the least, with the army of passionate and dedicated chefs, cooks and producers, ready and waiting to show an international audience what they can do with the best of Irish produce. Menus for the three day event include farmhouse cheeses, artisan bakery breads, speciality tracklements like chutney made with Irish vegetables, traditional relishes, and speciality preserves made from wild foraged seasonal ingredients , modern crackers and traditional oatcakes, delicious appetisers, tasty main courses, home grown salads with artisan dressings, tantalising desserts, farmhouse ice creams, butter and dairy products,  handcrafted chocolates  and delightful petit fours. Food from the four corners of Ireland, from far flung counties in the north to the rolling mountains of the west, down to the rugged shores of the south, across to the bounteous regions of the east coast.  A true culinary map represented on the plate.  Hungry just thinking about it! 
 
Good Food Ireland offers the very best  Irish food experience in every Approved Member establishment.  Small cafes off the beaten track, Michelin starred restaurants, cosy b&b’s, magnificent country houses, luxury hotels, intimate guesthouses, dynamic and innovative cookery schools, gourmet delis, real bakeries where the bread is in the oven before the sun comes up, country farm shops,  and of course, an array of producers, growers and makers to beat the band.  The Good Food Ireland family now comes together to impress visitors to Web Summit, to show Ireland’s food is at the very top of its game on the international stage.