With its rolling fields of lush greenery, seemingly never-ending coastline and booming agricultural industry, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Ireland is renowned for its exceptional produce. But what’s remarkable is how many different ingredients it truly excels in the production of. From its much sought-after grass-fed beef, award-winning oysters, to the best-selling stout in the world, more and more British chefs are looking across the Irish Sea to source produce from Ireland. Its produce is championed by British chefs who love what the island has to offer and Irish ingredients now get namechecked on many top restaurant menus. But what is it that makes Irish produce stand out from the crowd?

Ireland’s much-celebrated beef is a great place to start. Reared in conditions which are made for beef farming, a huge amount of care and attention goes into ensuring that Irish cattle are well-looked after, which ultimately leads to a great tasting product. This is one of the reasons that Anna Haugh, chef patron at London’s Myrtle restaurant, uses Irish beef in her restaurant. ‘The farmers care for their animals using practices that have been handed down in their families from generation to generation’, she explains. ‘That’s really important to me and what I have in mind when choosing what goes on my menu.’

The country’s mild climate and heavy rainfall is also perfectly suited to grass-fed beef production. This is an important factor in creating a flavoursome, nutrient-rich product; something which chef Paul Welburn places a lot of importance on. ‘The flavour of grass-fed Irish beef is incredible,’ he says. ‘That’s down to the outdoor grazing on the lush green Irish pastures; the diet of these happy and free cattle brings the unique deep grassy flavour which I look to enhance rather than mask in my cooking.’ To avoid confusion as to what grass-fed actually means, in 2020 Bord Bia introduced a grass-fed standard for Irish beef, which lays out specific rules that must be abided by in order to use the term, meaning that chefs can be ensured of a premium, great-tasting product.

Whilst the taste of Irish beef is obviously key to its popularity (winning more gold medals at the 2021 World Steak Challenge than any other origin), its sustainable and ethical credentials are just as important. That begins with knowing where it has come from, as chef Tom Cenci explains: ‘Traceability is essential for chefs and is also reassuring for the customers on where their food is from and that it has been sustainably produced,’ he explains. ‘The fact that Ireland is also local to the UK is a big plus as it means the carbon footprint is lower and it’s more sustainable.’ Chefs and customers can be further assured by Ireland's Sustainable Beef Assurance Scheme, which was developed in 2017 and has over 52,000 Irish beef farmer members, to help ensure that Irish beef is sustainably produced. It’s schemes like these combined with the product’s undeniable quality which have helped Irish beef gain the reputation it has today.

Irish beef may be one of the island’s most famous exports but there are many ingredients which chefs look to source from Ireland more and more. In the same vein as grass-fed beef, Irish dairy cows come from farms that are members of the Sustainable Dairy Assurance Scheme helping to guarantee the highest quality of product. Irish butter is perhaps the most famous dairy product to come out of the country and is known for its rich, creamy flavour and its yellowy colour – all down to the fact that the cows which produce the milk used to make it are grass-fed.