Listowel Food Fair

Listowel, Co Kerry

Now in its 17th year, the Listowel Food Fair is the longest running food festival in Ireland and aims to showcase the food producers of Kerry, which it certainly does, very deliciously!

The Festival will kick off in 2011 with  cookery demonstration by well know TV chef and cookery writer Catherine Fulvio who will show how to create easy tasty home meals that have the wow factor.

The rest of the week is packed with demonstations, tastings, competitions and workshops. Competitions include ones for the public – the one for best home baker in Kerry is sure to be hotly contested – and commercial food producers.   A literary and food Taste Trail will take visitors around various venues to sample both the food and the culture of Listowel, while guided Wild Food Walks will teach how to find and eat delicious foods freely available in the countryside, without poisoning yourself!

The don’t miss dinner of the week is definitely the ‘opulent’  four course Georgian Feast at the Listowel Arms, a hotel which itself dates from the Georgian era.

There are a number of awards presented during the fair, the big one being the Kerry Food Hero award, which is presented annually to a small-scale food producer, food retailer, farmer’s market stallholder, chef or restaurateur to recognise outstanding commitment to food and consistent excellence. It says a lot for food in the region that this award is so hotly contested and there are so many potential winners.

Listowel is not always on the itinerary of visitors to Kerry, who tend to stick to Killarney and the Ring, but it’s definitely worth a detour for the Food Fair.

Listowel Food Fair Information & Location Map

More information at the Food Fair website or Facebook page.