Dee wins food writing award for her cookbook
Dee Sewell with her award
CARLOW Co Council’s environmental awareness officer Dee Sewell has won an Irish Food Writing Award for her work on a book helping people to reduce food waste and cook sustainably.
The book, titled , was developed from an idea by Dee, who led the project. It was curated by Denise Walsh and Olivia Goodwillie. It contains a collection of recipes and expert tips from chefs, food producers and home cooks across Carlow to help people reduce their food waste.
Award-winning chef, writer and climate change activist Tom Hunt led the judging panel for the awards night at UCD, and they had high praise for how the book provides practical, accessible and community-led solutions to combat the issue of food waste.
“I was absolutely thrilled, I wasn’t really expecting it,” Dee told .
“Sitting in a room full of esteemed writers and authors and journalists and so I was just thrilled for everybody who had participated in the project and worked on it with me, so I was delighted,” she added.
In her role as environmental awareness officer, Dee gives food waste talks around the county and wanted to be able to show people useful examples of how they could limit their food waste at home, which is how the idea for the book came about.
Chefs and cooks around Carlow were then invited to submit their recipes.
“With tremendous help from Eileen O’Rourke, who looks after the Carlow Food Network, we managed to get many of the chefs involved in the network to contribute, so that was the start of the project really,” Dee said.
The project took the best part of a year to reach publication. The book was launched at Ballykealey House in March, where about 150 people watched recipes being prepared before tasting the dishes.
The book is not for sale, but it can be downloaded for free on the environmental awareness section of Carlow County Council’s website or through the library services borrow box. It is also available in all Co Carlow library branches and can be provided free-of-charge to community groups who book food waste talks with Dee.
Alongside local zero food waste chef Derek Oman, Dee runs food waste workshops across the county, with Derek demonstrating recipes and Dee giving presentations.
These workshops help community groups and schools build practical skills to prevent waste, shop smarter, cook creatively and better understand the environmental footprint of everyday food choices.
Anyone interested in attending a food waste talk can contact Dee at dsewell@carlowcoco.ie.
