A great award for the ‘sublime food' of Good Things restaurant

WEST Cork has won three annual Georgina Campbell Awards, including Best Restaurant, Best Host and Best B&B.

Carmel Somers – who earned a national reputation as a leader in the local food revolution at her small café and cookery school in Durrus – relocated Good Things to Dillon’s Corner in Skibbereen last March.

Seven short months later, it has picked up the Campbell award for Best Restaurant because the judge values the work done by ‘this exceptional chef, teacher and food-writer’. 

Georgina Campbell said Good Things deserved the accolade for ‘producing sublime food’ in terms of ‘seasonality, simplicity and fresh flavours’.

Carmel Somers told The Southern Star that the win ‘makes all the hard work worthwhile. Moving to Skibbereen was obviously the right thing to do,’ she said, ‘but I couldn’t have done it without my new team.’

Meanwhile, tt will come as no surprise to anyone who has stayed at Seaview House Hotel in Ballylickey, outside Bantry, that the owner, Kathleen O’Sullivan, has been named Host of the Year.

The judge said the establishment, which has been in business for more than three decades, is loved for its location, beautiful gardens and comfortable accommodation. ‘People love its immaculate maintenance, housekeeping and excellent local food, but most of all they love Kathleen’s ‘special brand of quiet and understated hospitality’ – something that has made Seaview House Hotel ‘a home from home for so many regular guests down through the years’.

Carbery Cottage Guest Lodge in Durrus has been named B&B of the Year. Georgina describes it as ‘a true Irish B&B ... an absolute gem’ because it combines genuine hospitality with good, simple food.’