In this interview as part of the Amazing Food and Drink Summit, we sat down with Patricia Farrell, Managing Director of Wilde Irish Chocolates.
Patricia has over 20 years experience at the coalface of the artisan food business sector in Ireland, as CEO of her craft chocolate business, Wilde Irish Chocolates which is based in rural Co. Clare. From an early background in heritage tourism in the fabulous Burren region and seeing a gap in the market to cater for the nascent food tourism trend beginning to take off, Patricia co-founded this craft chocolate factory with her husband in the very late 1990s to take advantage of the trend.
It also helped that she was a serious ‘chocoholic’ and this chocolate business start-up allowed her to successfully combine her 2 passions. Since then, the company has expanded out to service the retail speciality and independent food sector. Maintaining her passion for the ‘good stuff’ as she calls it, has seen the company under her direction maintain it’s artisan, handmade origins to become one of the most creative artisan chocolate makers in Ireland. Learn how Patricia started the business, how Covid affected the business as well as the importance of culinary tourism and how she thinks the relationship between food and tourism work together and more!
This interview was a part of our Amazing Food and Drink Summit 2021. If you would like to check out the rest of the interviews in the summit, check out our YouTube channel or have a look at more industry expert interviews on our website!
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