wood and chocolate

This week has felt like the start of something extraordinary in my life. I've found myself back in Dublin working with some amazingly fantastic food industry peeps. First there were the Irish Quality Food Awards which was almost a week of judging foods in categories from meat to ready meals to baking, whittled down to one overall winner, The Golden Q, and winners in each category. I was lucky enough to judge for 2 days amongst a whole mix of food industry insiders from chefs, restaurant owners, food buyers and magazine editors. A real treat for me, I still can't quite believe it.

To top that off I'm now working with the lovely and talented Sharon Hearne-Smith on her first cookbook (which she SO deserves!) and Donal Skehan is photographing….August is a pretty sweet month! And the work which is cleverly disguised as fun, just keeps on rolling…seems like Ireland wants me to stick around and that is exactly what I'm going to do.

I managed a sneak visit to a Community Garden in Dublin at the beginning of the week and it was so great to see them maximising a tiny space giving underprivileged children and adults a chance to work with the earth and grow their own produce. See here and here for more on community gardens and I urge you to go and check your local one out!

And if that wasn't great enough, I find myself staying in a house full of foodies and 7 puppies…I am living the dream.