Megabytes by John & Sally McKenna April 2001
You shall have a fishy!
The six winners.
Noel and Chris from Grants with Terry, Aidan, Martin, Pat, Colin and Tony
It seemed like a pretty good idea, and it was. Ask a whole tribe of restaurateurs to invent a fish dish that would pair beautifully with Moreau Chablis, one of the brands distributed by Grants of Ireland, then get a bunch of judges to select a short list of the most exciting dishes, then send them off around the country to eat them, then sit them down to argue about who the six winners were to be.
And so, fish guru Phena O'Boyle, Caterer and Hotelier editior Frank Corr, Master of Wine Dermot Nolan and John McKenna of this cyber parish all paired off and went to points north, south, east and west in search of the fishy dishys. A final ten contestants had to be narrowed down to six winners, and they turned out to be a geographically disparate and personally diverse group.
There were a trio of confident and creative veterans; Aidan McManus of The King Sitric in Howth, who made a beautiful dish of monkfish wrapped in smoked bacon with a buttermilk crab pancake; Terry McCoy of The Red Bank, in Skerries, whose dish of monkfish tail Lambay Island was a superlative success; and Pat Kerley of Quaglinos in Dundalk who united river, lake and sea in a dish of fillet of seabass with pike quenelles, samphire and a beurre blanc which had the judges raving.
Tony Schwartz of Kayne's Bistro in Killarney's Drumhall Hotel made a fine dish of wild salmon with land and sea vegetables in an oyster fennel butter sauce, whilst Colin Coughlan of Ivory's Hotel in Waterford made a very witty version of fish and chips, with a roulade of black sole with a salmon mousse, a crispy potato basket and a trio of vegetable purées. Martin Anderson of the Mount Errigal Hotel grabbed a gong for his dish of Swilly Sole.
The winners all get a trip in September to the beautiful, romantic town of Chablis (ah, Chablis in September!) and a visit to Christian Moreau's vineyards and winery, not to mention a beautiful plaque by Seamus Gill.
