‘The Story Behind Irish Food’ makes for a unique and compelling visitor experience, and at Irish Food Tours we liaise between tour operators and food producers to create a food experience that best suits your guests’ requirements. By linking up with existing food trails and by creating new routes Irish Food Tourism is becoming a major source of new revenue for tour operators into Ireland.
We pre-arrange the visits to the production units or farm facilities and confirm dates, times and numbers with the producers, so that they are fully prepared for your guest’ arrival.
We do not simply suggest that guests should visit a particular food producer - we help tour operators to get them there.
The people behind Irish Food Tours
Ciaran (Zack) Gallagher
Zack – chef, blogger, social media phenomenon and Fáilte Ireland Food Ambassador – is a sharer of other people’s stories. Filled with passion and conviction, Zack believes in the power of perseverance – like when he marched with a banner for 2 days outside his school because they refused to let him study Home Economics, a ‘girl’s subject’. He works tirelessly towards his goal of enhancing the image of Irish food.
Zack has food and hospitality in his blood. Growing up, his mother ran a B&B and he understood early on that the customer is king, “She would ask guests if they would like trout for breakfast. If they said yes, she’d go fishing.” His childhood in Donegal was surrounded by food; his mother and aunts baking and cooking, drying dilisk seaweed on bedsheets and making fish cakes. He started working in a local bakery aged 11.
Having trained as a chef and cooked everywhere from London to on board fishing boats, he started his Irish Food Guide blog in 2008, promoting all that is good in Irish food; producers, restaurants, events and festivals. From the start he saw it as a food tourism platform, a space to “share other people’s stories and connect everything”. His @IrishFoodGuide Twitter account has exceeded 32,000 followers. He has become synonymous with Donegal and with Irish food.
Zack has an absolute belief in Ireland’s food tourism potential and is currently studying (2016/2017) for his Higher Diploma in Arts in Tourism Destination Marketing. Irish Food Tours, will serve as an intermediary between food producer and tour operators building tailored food tourism itineraries. It will also provide support to producers which will enable them to take advantage of the valuable revenue stream that food tourism can provide.
Wendy Kavanagh
One of Wendy Kavanagh’s earliest memories is of baking ‘apple tarts’ on jam jar lids under the watchful eye of her grandmother, who was the cook for the Leigh family on Rosegarland Estate in Wexford.
Indeed Wendy comes from a long line of foodies and her mother was also a cook for Brigadier-General John Hardress-Llyod of Gloster House in Offaly.
It’s no wonder then that Wendy Kavanagh became a chef herself and was one of Ireland’s first food bloggers. She was even Eric Clapton’s private chef for a period when he owned Barberstown Castle.
Wendy, who is based in Nurney, Co Kildare, worked in both the tourism and food industries and has been promoting Irish food producers online since 2008.
So, when it comes to food, she certainly knows what she’s talking about and set up Irish Food Tours in March 2015 with fellow food blogger and chef Zack Gallagher.
Wendy was one of 44 female entrepreneurs to participate in and completed the pilot ACORNS programme. This programme is funded under the CEDRA Rural Innovation and Development Fund (CEDRA – Commission for the Economic Development of Rural Areas) through the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine.
While at business plan stage in 2013, Irish Food Tours reached the Leinster region finals in Ulster Bank’s Business Achievers Awards.