2008 is flying by, there's been so much happening here at Food Matters, it's been hard to keep track...

During the summer, Bord Bia hosted an Irish Beef Masterclass at Brown's Hotel.  Guests were taken through the finest and most unusual cuts of Irish Beef by Heston Blumenthal's favourite butcher - Jack O Shea.  Mark Hix, one of London's highly acclaimed chefs demonstrated innovative ways for the beef to be prepared and then cooked.  The Masterclass proceeded with a fantastic lunch prepared by Mark's team in Brown's Hotel, using Irish Beef, of course.

Riso Gallo launched a fabulous new product last month - Riso Gallo 3 Grains.  This is a trio of cereals - Italian Rice, Spelt, Pearl Barley, all with a low Glycaemic Index and full of natural goodness.  Its versatility lends itself to all sorts of dishes including risottos, salads, in fact, it can be used in most rice dishes.    For further information visit www.risogallo.it

We've been really busy on behalf of Tabasco over the last few months too.  We held the second Tabasco Club Lunch of the year in July at the Blueprint Cafe; Jeremy Lee didn't disappoint, the food was memorable and a good time was had by all.   September 1st saw the start of the native oyster season, in true tradition, the season was kicked off by the Tabasco British Oyster Opening Championship.  This year's event was held at Bentley's Oyster Bar in Swallow Street, London and the winner was Armando Lema from Coastline Galicia.  Armando will be heading off to Galway at the end of September to represent Britain in the International Championship, so fingers crossed that he'll bring back the World title.

We're pleased to announce that we are now working on behalf of two new clients - Nielsen Massey, one of the finest vanilla extracts in the world, and Butlers - Ireland's leading chocolate maker.  So watch this space for forthcoming activities with these two clients, including an exciting announcement from Butlers very soon!