The Belling West Cork Artisan Food Awards 2011

Several extraordinary things emerged from the first Belling West Cork Artisan Food Awards.
First of all were the extraordinary images taken by photographer John Carey, photos of amazing colour, detail and wit, showing well-known people in an entirely different light: Fingal Ferguson of Gubbeen looks like a conjuror in a French circus from 50 years ago; Madeleine McKeever of Brown Envelope Seeds like a musician of the seed world; Valerie Kingston of Glenilen Farm as an incandescent milkmaid. The images are some of the most striking ever taken of Irish producers, and designer Lorenzo Tonti framed Mr Carey's work to perfection in the Belling booklet.
And last night, what was most palpable was the affection and respect shown not just towards the winners, but to all of the 8 nominees: the goodwill was palpable, the respect was palpable.
And the diaspora of creativity and originality of the producers was echoed in brilliant speeches by David Puttnam, who took us all the way back to Abraham Lincoln in a sublime dissertation on values, and from Sean O'Driscoll of Belling, who said simply of the work of the artisans that: “This is the Ireland I believe in”.
But, there could only be two winners of the Artisan Oscars, so Milleens Cheese won the award for the Originals, whilst Brown Envelope Seeds won the Newcomer award. Both Norman Steele and Madeleine McKeever were cheered to the rafters, and chefs Rory O'Connell and Mickael Viljanen were cheered just as loudly for their brilliant, deft cooking.
The Belling was one of the great events.