Castlemine Farm are delighted to announce an exciting new partnership at their Circular Road food kitchen. Bringing the best in professional skills and experience, Alan Burns of Umami Food Company joins Derek and Brendan Allen in their quest to bring the finest of local and international foods to their customers.
Derek Allen told the Roscommon People what motivated him to entice Alan on board at Roscommon. “Alan comes with over 25 years’ experience in the food and beverage industry, having cooked in a variety of roles from personal chef to cooking for royalty and heads of state. He has worked as pastry chef in a 2 star Michelin restaurant and run his own award winning restaurant, The Wild Bergamot, in Scotland. The Wild Bergamot was Harden’s UK Restaurant Guide highest scoring restaurant in Scotland, 3 years running and also achieved Michelin Guide listings. It also won Scottish Restaurant Awards Rural Chef of the Year, Menu of the Year and Wine List of the Year. I have known Alan for 3 years and his passion for quality and his love of food makes him the ideal person to use our hand reared meats to produce appetizing and tasty foods for our customers.”
Alan, who moved to Ireland in 2008, is looking forward to the opportunities the partnership will bring. “I’m really excited about the collaboration between myself, Brendan and Derek. I will be bringing great flavour’s to the dishes we are showcasing in the shop. By using the best of ingredients supplied by the brothers and cooking the meats long and slow to accentuate the natural flavours, we will be creating pies, pasties and ready meals that are wholesome and satisfying. The pastry in the pies will be made using real dripping from Castlemine beef (the way your granny used to do it) and the fillings will be melt-in-the-mouth meats served in a rich sauce”.
For those customers who enjoy Castlemine Farm ready meals, Alan will be enhancing and improving the recipes. “They will include some of the old favourites such as lasagne and cottage pie, improved by my loving touch! We will however be introducing some new dishes, such as Chicken Saag, a lovely curry from the Punjab region of India, that will bring regional flavours from around the world, reflecting my extensive travels and work experience – think France, India, Morocco to name a few.”
As well producing products for Castlemine Farm, Alan will also be bringing his own range of Umami Food Company products to Roscommon. “My own brand of products, which will include soups, pâtes, hummus and the like, will be available in the near future in the shop so look out for the brand…Umami Food Company…it’s all about taste!”
On this Saturday, September 5th, Alan will be giving Castlemine customers a chance to taste the new products. From 2-4pm there will be tastings available in the shop and Alan will be on hand to talk to customers and get their feedback and ideas. He believes that it’s the customers who decide the products that get made. “We want you, the customers, to get involved in developing a range of exciting products you cannot live without! We’ve already been told that it’s time to get our Cornish Pasties back on the shelves. I’m going to be kept busy!”
Tel: 090 66 29886 Web: www.castleminefarm.ie
