TU Dublin Students Scoop Two Irish Food Writing Awards
TU Dublin students of Botanical Cuisine have scooped two awards at the prestigious 2023 Irish Food Writing Awards.
Students won the Irish Food Blog Award for ‘Botanical Cuisine Digest’, which students of the programme use to share their insights, while Gavin Mc Donagh, a 2023 graduate, won the Culinary Student Award. This follows the programme’s success last year, with Anissa Mokhtari winning the inaugural Culinary Student Award in 2022.
Irish Food Blog Award
The Botanical Cuisine Digest brings the reader on an experiential journey with students and graduates of the programme as they share their insights about learning through engagement with the modules, farm-to-fork food creation, industry leaders in food sustainability, and application in their professional practice.
Judging the competition, Robb Walsh, author and James Beard Journalism Award winner, said: “The students have done some great writing on the Botanical Cuisine blog. I admire the blog mission and selection of voices; Botanical Cuisine certainly fulfils the "maintaining an online presence with regular new written content” criteria. Great design too.”
Gavin McDonagh won the Culinary Student Award, which celebrates recipe writing and cooking excellence. Finalists were then required to prepare, cook and present the recipes in front of the culinary judges Jess Murphy (Kai Restaurant, Galway) and Garret Mullins (The Marker Hotel, Dublin.) and award sponsors Kerrygold. Gavin’s menu was influenced by seasonality and local sourcing.