TRAILBLAZERS AWARD
This category recognises three women who have ignored boundaries and burst through barriers. Each is the first or only Irish woman to achieve such a notable accomplishment.
DANNI BARRY Michelin-starred chef
Danni Barry is one of an elite group of female Michelin-starred chefs in the UK and only the second female chef ever in Ireland to gain a star — an accolade she won while still in her twenties.
Danni was persuaded by Michael Deane to return from England to her native Northern Ireland to take up the reins as head chef for the launch of Deanes EIPIC in Belfast. Within 18 months the restaurant had been awarded the coveted Michelin Star as well as 3 AA Rosettes and the Restaurant Association of Ireland named it ‘Best Newcomer’ in Ireland in 2015.
Most recently FOOD&WINE Magazine named Danni ‘Chef of the Year’ in Ireland in 2016 and Deanes EIPIC was hailed the Best Restaurant in Ulster. Her cooking career began in 2003 in the then Michelin-starred Deanes Restaurant in Howard Street with chef Michael Deane.
Four years later Danni went on her travels to South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and mainland Europe, garnering knowledge from the high-end restaurants in which she worked along the way before rejoining the team at Deanes. Danni has consistently driven the highest standards in her kitchen and leads her team by example, with dedication to excellence in her cooking and success for the business. From the outset, Danni has trained her staff to stretch to the excellent standards which she herself holds and she continually offers opportunities to young chefs from around the globe to come to Belfast to work alongside her.
Her style is progressive, honest, flavoursome, light, visual, balanced and modern.
LYDIA LYNCH Associate Professor, Trinity College Dublin; Assistant Professor, Harvard Medical School
Dr Lydia Lynch is one of the leading women working in her field. She made a major breakthrough when she discovered iNKT (invariant natural killer T-cells). The cells are to be found in fat and Lydia demonstrated that therapies to activate these cells could help manage obesity, diabetes, and metabolic disease.
Lydia did a BSc in Cell Biology and Genetics followed by a PhD in Immunology. She was subsequently recruited as an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School and now lives between Boston and Dublin.
She was recently awarded a European Research Commission starting grant (€1.82m), which allowed her to set up a laboratory at Trinity College, where she is an associate professor.
Lydia’s work has been lauded by the international medical community and she has been the recipient of a number of prestigious awards including; UNESCO-L’Oréal International Women in Science award, a Marie Curie International Fellowship, and an American Diabetes Association award. Her ambition is to make a real difference in human health, particularly by finding new ways to use our immune system to fight against cancer.
ISEULT WARD Co-founder FoodCloud
Iseult Ward is an award-winning social entrepreneur. She was named as one of Forbes 30 under 30 European Class 2017 and is one of
Time Magazine’s next generation leaders. Iseult is co-founder and ceo of FoodCloud, a social enterprise that connects businesses that have surplus food with local charities in their community through a software platform. To date, the equivalent of over 14 million meals has been redistributed to charities that need it. Her next big focus is scaling FoodCloud’s unique solution so that communities internationally can benefit. Iseult has a BA in Business and Economics from Trinity College Dublin.