 Just last weekend in Kerry. They're based in Glentys. They're filly-ginch. You may be familiar with them from delis and restaurants and food markets because they have a range of products. In fact 50 different products but they they won gold for their tomato and chili relish gold for their tomato casundae chutney and then bronze for their sundried tomato whole grain mustard with balsamic sense delicious and they also took home best in county. Well I'm delighted that the director of filly-ginch William Creeman joins us now and hopefully can hear us on the line. William good afternoon. Yes thank you John and thank you very much for having us on our show. No problem congratulations first of all. Well thank you very much it's a great achievement and we're delighted to come out you know top of the top of the class in some of these in these areas. Not the first award that filly-ginch have won you've also been successful in the great taste awards and on the food coast awards as well. That's right John I suppose you know if you go way back we start in 1987 I suppose you know from the the kitchen of Sir and Philip Moss House and from that time to this there's been a steady growth and a steady I suppose incremental gaining of knowledge and experience and expertise and many of our staff have been with us from that time and you know their skills and knowledge gained over those number of years have really added to the the quality of the products and when you augment that then we've taken on some some newer people in the recent years and they've got superb experience in the food sector so we've been very lucky that we have a very strong team in the company and the first two awards is we were in 2002 actually and from that date you know incrementally over you know the following 20 odd years we've won awards at different events and different places but the blasts of the biggest ones in Ireland they're very competitive so it was a big thrill for us to to get those particular awards this year. In the region of 3000 products in in general entered into the award so it you know gives us an idea of what the competition is like and the finest from around the country but you were successful and maybe successful because you continued to keep it real and there would have been a temptation to you know go down the mass produced route I suppose as things got bigger and you know the scale of things got bigger over the years but you've resisted that. Absolutely correct John I suppose our eaters when we started out was it was everything is natural you know there's no artificial flavorings no gluten no nuts no GMO and we started out with traditional recipes and everything is handmade in small batches so it's very traditional and everything we do is by hand so that eats us I suppose has stood us over the last 25 years and it's we feel quickly strong about it but you know John like I suppose that is what our artisan food is about and I'd say if you go around the country around the county you know and go up to Shannon in in in in Dunfanahy are in Marianne in Kabucha in Nidolic you probably get the same feeling of you know passion about their food and that really separates artisan foods from the mainstream that you're talking about and it's never a track that we want to go on to go on. Now your your products are to be found in you know really good restaurants and cafes and delis and food markets but also in some shops so it's great that you're on the shelves in some shops I mean you know it's a ultimately it's it's all about to turn over you have to have the the turn over to keep the staff but you mentioned about the passion there and when your products pop up in places that we love I think that makes a difference. It does it does and you know you're always combining the the products with you know the people that buy it and you know we were at you know Taste of Tony Gaul when it was when it was very strong and you get to hear what people think immediately of the product and it's you know and you do get tremendous feedback from from the public in that in that sort of environment and similarly with shops I mean most of the like fillings in Tony Gaul we would have a direct contact with the people that we that we provide the the food to the products too so we get feedback quite directly and whether it's in our retail with the jars or whether we go into the hotels with our catering buckets because we do quite a strong catering side of the business as well for for for that so it's a lot of it is about listening to what what the feedback is and and then to react I suppose if you're if you ask me like how do we go about making these the the the process that we kind of go through is we're hugely busy at this time of year as many food producers are coming into Christmas so our quieter time is in the first quarter so that's the period that we sort of look at the market look at what might be appropriate to both our current customers and future customers so we look at trends that might be happening so so therefore when you see like tomato and chilli relish or a casundi you know casundi is quite a new idea for chutney but that was driven out of listening to what the next generation are thinking in relation to food and the slightly spicier element so so that's that's where they come out of and our team back in here in Glenties would work on this idea we probably it's quite torturous at times because you go through six seven different tasting you send them out to people you get them back you know and it's not quite hot enough it's it's too sweet it's and then over a period of time it might take six months john but eventually we get there and doesn't doesn't go to market until it's tried and tasted and tested yeah well i suppose like most artisan foods we live or die on the quality of our food and you know from day one we've always looked at quality as as a key difference in our food and so that's why anything that goes new to market we have to be happy with it first preserves marmalades um relishes chutney and and then of course there's you know as far too numerous to mention you know the the foods that they can you know they're great with whether it's sandwich or a toastie or as i read somewhere great with sausage rolls and something that i hadn't thought of well if you look at you know um the the the tomato and chili for example is is is not a new concept we just try to do it better and you know that's obviously a very flexible product that can go into italian or mexican or on burgers you know our cheese or on sandwiches and because sunday then it's more um uh an indian bay but it isn't an indian chutney so it's that bit spicier so um uh again that would be a compliment to curries or even in the curries or you can even mix with rice um i was actually down at Pirates the Coffee Bean in Nairn on the weekend and they had a sandwich which was based around uh squash from the Portnour Marker garden and they as the base and they had the Cassundee uh chutney alongside as part of that sandwich and it was gorgeous and that was a bit of creativity from their part there you go but it worked but as those little touches it's a little bit of a chutney or relish that goes into a sandwich or a toastie and you have it out in the cafe and think wow that's that special and the reality is that you know you can easily do this at home absolutely no it is and you know um once once people can have have the ingredients and at the time it's not it's not a massive big leap to be able to do this yeah absolutely it's about having the right products all right well listen continued success and uh uh based in glentes and uh uh a recent winner of those four awards at the Irish Food Awards so uh once again uh congratulations to you and indeed to everyone there at Filigens William thanks thanks a million many thanks John