Who serves the Best Classic Porridge in Ireland? Well according to the quintessential porridge people in Ireland, we do, here in Castlewood House.
Flahavan’s hosted the inaugural National Porridge Awards for Hotels in November 2022 and Castlewood House was awarded the title of Best Classic Porridge.
Flahavan’s is an Irish family business, and they have been milling oats for over 200 years. They developed the National Porridge Awards for Hotels, to help highlight the ways that hotels can play an important role in putting locally sourced Irish oats, at the centre of the breakfast experience.
“The idea of a National Porridge Awards has been on our radar for some time,” said Shane O’Hanrahan, Flahavan’s Foodservice Business Development Manager. “We want to acknowledge the innovative and creative ways hotels’ culinary teams can elevate the breakfast experience for their Irish and international guests by incorporating our world-class Irish wholegrain oats into their breakfast offerings. The time has come to celebrate and reward that effort.”
“I will be looking for the key features that make a great porridge including texture, flavour and presentation and origin of ingredients. I will also be considering how creative each hotel has been in optimising their guest’s porridge experience in terms of topping, accompaniments, and presentation,” announced Eunice Power, renowned chef and Irish Times food writer, who along with Shane, were among the judges that visited each of the finalists to experience the porridge offering.
At Castlewood House breakfast is such an important part of our day and our guest experience, and we are always exploring new options, and striving to improve our offering. Seeing our guests smile with delight when we create ‘breakfast theatre’, serving the porridge on a silver platter, with special Castlewood accompaniments: a choice of sugars (demerara or muscovado); drunken sultanas (soaked in whiskey – little pops of goodness!); and finally a choice of Dingle Whiskey, Baileys or Irish Mist.
Needless to say, we are delighted to be the recipients of this prodigious award. You can read more about the awards using this link.
