A dairy farm on the Seven Heads Peninsula hosted a group of chefs from France and Belgium this month during a farm and food tour of Co. Cork.

Over 15 chefs were taking part in a Bord Bia-hosted trip to learn about the origins of Irish produce, including dairy, Hereford beef, whiskey, and seafood.

They are all members of the Chefs' Irish Beef Club, which is an exclusive international forum bringing together some of the leading chefs from Europe and beyond who collectively endorse Irish beef. 

The club sees award-winning chefs give pride of place to Irish beef by serving it in their restaurants, which are amongst some of the finest dining establishments in Europe and further afield.

The group kicked off its three-day tour of the Rebel County at the beef and sheep farm of Kay O'Sullivan in Mourneabbey, near Mallow.

The group also visited Irish Hereford Prime member John Appelbe's farm in Carrigroe.

Dairy farm visit

John McCarthy, who is farming on the picturesque Seven Heads Peninsula in west Co. Cork, also hosted a visit of the group of chefs.

He is the fourth generation of McCarthys farming there, and milks 80 cows all year-round with his wife and children.

"We're living in a peninsula and it's a good grassland area. On average, we get cows out to grass over 300 days of the year," McCarthy told the chefs.

"We consider the grass being the main driver of our product to give flavour."

About five years ago, he got involved with Five Farms, for the added-value element.

Five Farms is sourced and produced in Co. Cork, and is the “world’s first farm-to-table Irish cream liqueur”.

According to Five Farms, every Friday, a tanker stops at each of the five farms to collect the milk and deliver it to the local co-op, where it is pumped into a silo to set it aside from the batches coming in from the other hundreds of farms in the co-op.

This milk is then separated into dairy cream and combined with Irish whiskey to become Irish cream liqueur within 48 hours of collection.

Appreciation of Irish products

According to one of the chefs on the trip, in France, there is a "big appreciation of Irish products and Irish people".

Joseph Doverman, a Co. Tipperary man, said that the French "have got some sort of connection with us, they really like Irish people in general".

Doverman has been cheffing for the last 12 years, 10 of which he has spent in France, and is a head chef in Lyon.

While Irish cooking “still hasn't got the best of reputations” in France, mainly because they “love their own cooking”, Doverman said what they do appreciate is the quality of Irish produce.

“Drink, meats and dairy products, they're all able to acknowledge that what the Irish are producing rivals the best of the French stuff.”

Speaking to Agriland while visiting McCarthy's farm, Doverman said the big difference with an Irish dairy farm compared to a French one is that “it's much more familial”.

“The whole family are involved, like in this farm here. I think the difference in France is that it's got a bit more industrialised. Bigger farms, a lot more produce, it's definitely a higher intensity in terms of farming,” he explained.

“I think that kind of homeliness, that kind of family side, is what makes Irish farms so special.”

Doverman has been a member of the Chefs’ Irish Beef Club for four years now and is the only Irish member in the French chapter.

Speaking about the club’s trip to Ireland, he added: “It's something I'm very proud of, to be able to share my love of Ireland with the other French chefs, especially when they're so happy to come and see all the things Ireland has to offer, which is lovely.

“It's always a very prideful moment for me coming back home and being able to share my home, my culture with them.”

Clonakilty Distillery

As part of the trip, the chefs also visited Clonakilty Distillery where they learned about the sourcing of barley along with the fermentation and distilling process.

Founded by the Scully family in 2016, it is the only family-run distillery in Ireland that grows its own grain. The barley used is sourced from the family farm by the ocean, or grown by local farmers in Co. Cork.

The Scully family has been farming the same coastal land for nine successive generations.