Gold Ribbon Cookery - Cordon d'Or Cuisine

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Noreen Kinney is an international Culinary Arts Instructor, Author, Celebrity Chef, Restaurant Reviewer and Culinary Judge, who pioneered the exciting new Irish Cuisine movement in Ireland, from the early 1960s, throughout the 1970s, and into the early 1980s. In 1996, Bord Fáilte, the Irish Government Tourist Board, acknowledged NOREEN as the Culinary Ambassador for Ireland.

Nowadays, Noreen pioneers the

‘Culinary Arts’ Accolade of the 21st Century
Cordon d’ Or – Gold Ribbon

Her former European passport listed her Profession – Gourmet! Life is a Culinary Odyssey for Noreen Kinney - Dinner in Bombay…Breakfast in Beirut…Lunch in Rome…Tea in Zurich…Dinner in London. One of Noreen’s many 24-hour culinary adventures. Another favorite regular trip was Lunch in Cork, Ireland… Dinner and Breakfast in Paris, France… Lunch in London, England. She has traveled the globe from a very early age, lived in several countries, and specialized in international cuisine.

Early Days

Noreen spent her childhood in India, where she became fascinated with the world of herbs and spices. At the knees of the family cooks, Noreen learned all about these interesting delectable items, and how to blend them for use in flavoring food. She discovered the mystical folklore and fables surrounding them; and the history and origins of all types of foods. Later, this fascination with food, and the first hand knowledge acquired, provided the interesting background chit chat to her audiences during her ‘Culinary Tours’ throughout Ireland; where she imparted the secrets on seasoning foods.

As a teenager, Noreen told a close family friend, Dr. Tim O’Driscoll, Director General of Bord Failte, the Irish Tourist Board, and best man at her parents wedding: “Ireland is virgin territory to become a gourmet’s paradise.” He threw her a challenge to make it happen. The year was 1960, when her parents took Noreen and a friend on a culinary cum sightseeing tour of Ireland. Noreen felt inspired, and envisaged the potential to develop Ireland’s natural food resources into a new Irish cuisine. Thus began a life long love affair with Irish food. She studied international cuisine; took practical cooking courses in London; and traveled the world to learn about French, Italian, Chinese and other international foods from the experts; including Elizabeth David when they were neighbors living in Chelsea, London. Noreen returned to Ireland three times a year throughout the Sixties; kept abreast with the Irish food scene; and pioneered the beginnings of the New Irish Cuisine movement. Eventually, she moved to live in Ireland, after the Irish government made the momentous decision to establish Ireland as a tax-free haven for writers and artists in 1969.

Noreen, a Culinary Artiste, started nationwide ‘Culinary Tours’, using only her first name in her work. The ‘Tours’, were in the format of demonstrations with instructional talks/presentations and promotions. They were designed to show her audiences what they could do with the wonderful natural fresh food resources available on their own doorstep. The ‘Tours’ were a great success, and pioneered the new Irish cuisine movement. Her work in the culinary arena was considered very original at the time, and received major media coverage, via numerous articles in papers, magazines and trade publications. She became a Celebrity Chef, and was a guest several times on TV, Radio and at Special Events. A TV program on Noreen’s work as a Culinary Artiste appeared on Irish television in 1975. Friends helped her start the Irish Gourmet Society, to establish the new Irish cuisine movement. Sponsors came on board. They included Waterford Crystal, Le Creuset, Beamish & Crawford, Sunbeam, Tupperware, Irish Linen Mills, Carrigaline Potteries, and Baileys Irish Cream, for whom she created the first Baileys dessert - The Jewel Box.

From the start, Noreen set out to elevate interest in food, trying to get people away from the idea that cooking was a mundane daily chore. She aimed to raise food to the level of recognition as a ‘Culinary Art’. It was a phrase Noreen used in publicity materials from the outset to define her work. And, she took it a stage further in the early Seventies, when she stressed the importance of presentation at a major Food Trade Show in England. Noreen displayed her selection of entries as a ‘Culinary Art’, and created ‘Winter Wonderland’. She presented the dessert to the Judges as a ‘Culinary Masterpiece’. It won the prize for originality and presentation. At that time, most entries in the Show, and food served at top hotels in Europe still followed the rigid and conservative nineteenth century Escoffier style of haute cuisine presentations. Traditionally, everything was coated in aspic or gelatin, and hams looked as if they had been suitably embalmed and dipped in wax!

‘Cooking Irish Style Today’, published by Mercier Press in Ireland in 1976, highlighted Noreen’s principles and the development of the ‘Culinary Arts’. The book emphasized her beliefs that Ireland was ready for a new Irish cuisine, and virgin territory to become a gourmet’s paradise. The book sold out, with several reprints through to the 1990s. In that same period, The Examiner newspaper group commissioned her, to fill a double page weekly. ‘Out and About with Noreen’ appeared in their revamped features “Irish Weekly Examiner’ edition for six years. The readership included people in Ireland, and Irish people who lived in seventeen other countries. She was commissioned for several years, to fill four pages monthly in the Irish magazine ‘Social & Personal’. Many articles on the ‘Culinary Arts’, the new Irish cuisine, restaurant reviews and international cuisine were featured in these publications. Her portfolio contains approximately two thousand articles published in Europe.

The turning point came at the start of the 1980s, when the Developers (the name given to this group by Noreen) came forward onto the Irish culinary stage, to expand their ideas for a new Irish Cuisine. A Chef’s contest was held in Ireland, sponsored by Grants of Ireland and Bord Failte, the Irish Tourist Board. It was intended to bring attention to efforts to establish the new Irish Cuisine. Noreen’s article on the event was published in the Examiner newspapers. She congratulated the winner Gerry Galvin, a well-known Chef in southern Ireland, and encouraged the efforts to take the idea for a new Irish Cuisine to the next stage. By the early 1990s, there was a proliferation of activities in every culinary sphere, across the Emerald Isle. In 1994, the Consolidators came on board, when the Irish government finally established An Bord Bia – The Irish Food Board. Thereafter, new Irish Cuisine became recognized across the world.

In 1985, Noreen started work on a new book Cordon d’Or –Gold Ribbon Cuisine, and made plans to follow her two daughters, who moved to Florida. In January 1990, Mercier Press, published another cookbook by Noreen - 'Cooking Irish Style'.

Recent Times:

Noreen relocated to Florida in late 1990, and continued her 'Culinary Arts' activities on an international level. Immediately, she defined the name Cordon d’ Or – Gold Ribbon as the Culinary Arts Accolade for the 21st Century. Cordon Bleu – Blue Ribbon belonged to the 20th Century, and by 1999, was used for anything and everything, thereby losing considerable prestige. The supreme Accolade Cordon d’ Or – Gold Ribbon can be applied to any culinary arena at the very pinnacle of its activities in the‘Culinary Arts’ theatre; and will be awarded for superlative standards at an international level.

In 1995, at the St. Petersburg Times 'Festival of Reading' at Eckerd College, the new cookbook ‘Cordon d’Or Cuisine – Gold Ribbon Cookery’ was launched. The upscale image planned to take the cuisine of tomorrow across the threshold from the 20th Century into the 21st Century. It adheres to the current French school of thought, which recognizes and encourages initiative, individuality and originality; and combines it with the speed and simplicity indicative of Asian style cooking. The book features a selection of eclectic, classic, global and innovative dishes. It is both national and international food, taken from a shrinking world, where nations have become inter-dependent, and food tastes are cosmopolitan; and it includes a slant on the new Irish Cuisine.

Schiller International University contacted Noreen. They asked her to teach food production, and restaurant/dining room management at their head campus in Dunedin, Florida. Later, she became the Executive Chef and Food Service Director at the University. Schiller has seven campuses in Europe - London, Paris, Madrid, Strasbourg, Heidleberg, and two in Switzerland. Recently, Noreen acted in an advisory capacity in Schiller’s plans to open a campus in Ireland in the future. Noreen gives culinary talks and presentations in Florida, and was on national TV-NBC, for SPIFFS, a Florida based organization with a membership representing fifty nations. She acts as food consultant to organizations; and by special request, she will give private cookery lessons.

During the 1990s, articles in the media questioned that the new Irish cuisine could not be specifically defined. It was described as a group of Irish restaurants, each featuring their own brand of delicious contemporary recipes to promote their establishments. The media asked for clarity. Noreen agreed. For decades, French cuisine has been associated with Cordon Bleu, the 20th Century yardstick used to judge the best of food. In 1995, Noreen felt that Irish food had attained the level of defining itself with the top of the line Accolade – GOLD; and fitted into the concepts of Cordon d'Or – Gold Ribbon - the very best. It seemed appropriate to associate the Accolade with the color Gold seen in the Irish flag; and recognize the levels Irish Cuisine has attained today. Noreen has written articles to that effect published in magazines in the States. Today, she encourages Bord Bia (the Irish government Food Board) to develop the use of the Accolade to describe the new Irish cuisine in the 21st century.

These days, Noreen is asked to judge culinary events like the annual Culinary Battle of the Bay in St. Petersburg, Florida, where top restaurants and their Chefs compete for recognition as the best in the Tampa Bay area. She is a contributor to two magazines in Florida. Her work includes articles on restaurant reviews, the culinary arts, humor and travelers tales. She is an active member of the International Association of Culinary Professionals. Currently, at the request of her publisher, Noreen is completing a literary cookbook, on how Ireland went from famine to feast, to become the Gourmet’s Paradise she predicted over forty years ago.

The progression of upscale culinary activities, pursued onwards and upwards throughout the decades, has arrived at the point where the conclusion reached is, that the time is right to initiate The Annual International CORDON d’ OR – GOLD RIBBON COOKBOOK & ‘CULINARY ARTS’ Awards.