Stay Tuned

Kinsale Speciality Food Symposium

An Bord Bia's second Kinsale Speciality Food Symposium bash gets under way this Thursday, and for visitors to the pretty West Cork seaside town, the key details are not just the interesting line-up of speakers - including luminaries such as designer David Collins, Tamasin Day-Lewis of the Daily Telegraph, Paul Rankin of Belfast's Cayenne and the great Colman Andrews of Los Angeles and the great Peter Ward of Nenagh, to name just a few, but also the market which will be held on Friday and Saturday on the streets of the town. Here, great chefs such as Otto Kunze, Paul Flynn and others will be giving demos and handing out delectable tastes of speciality foods, and you can met Ireland's great artisan producers. The market runs from 8.30am to 6pm on Friday, and from 9am to 2pm on Saturday. See you there!

'Corrie Culinary Coup

We're old enough to remember the days of Pat Phoenix and Ena Sharples, but for younger folk it is blokes like John Savident, who plays the butcher, Fred, who are icons to the younger Coronation Street fans.
So, queue up to shake hands with Fred, for he will be performing the official opening of Pat Whelan's brilliant butcher's shop, at the Oakville Shopping Centre, Clonmel, at 11am on Saturday, 20th April - yep, this Saturday.
Quite frankly, Fred is going to be playing second fiddle to this dazzling new store, which is the hippest butcher's shop in Ireland, and a place manned by a great team under Pat Whelan.
New standards in every direction are being set by this gorgeous shop, and just don't miss out on that beef from Pat Whelan's own farm: it is amazing.

Meet Fred from 11am on Saturday. James Whelan Butchers, Oakville Shopping Centre, Clonmel, Co Tipperary, Tel: (052) 22927

Tipperary Ice Cream

You might pick a tub of Tipperary ice cream out of the freezer just because the packaging looks so fab and groovy - look at those funky colours and that hip script - and you might pick up a tub just because it is organic - and for how long have we all, been saying: "Why doesn't someone make an organic ice cream!".
Well, Joyce and Paddy O'Keeffe have finally done it, and the result is a real Wow! Wow! packaging and real Wow! flavours - we'll have the melon ice cream, just with a little poached fruit, if that's okay by you.
The O'Keeffes have come to ice cream production via a curious route, for Joyce is an accountant and Paddy a civil engineer, who also happens to have a degree in food technology, and a spell working in the ice cream industry in the U.K. The new ice cream is certified by the Organic Trust, and interestingly it is batch made, rather than mass-produced, which is the norm in the industry.
The flavours are groovy as all get out - banana and cinnamon; amaretto macaroon and hazlenut, chocolate hazlenut, with a clutch of more conventional flavours such as rich vanilla, strawberry, and our own favoured melon.
You will find these don't-miss-'em! ices in smart Dublin stores such as The Good Food Store, Morley's Mulberry Market in Kilmacud, Avoca at Kilmacanogue, the excellent Nolan's of Clontarf, Butler's Pantry, and in clever Super Valus at Mount Merrion, Deansgrange, Shankill and Churchtown, as well as some Superquinn stores. Down in Cork they are available from Field's of Skibbereen amongst other outlets.
Email: organicicecream@hotmail.com

Irish Pub Awards - in Germany!

So, anyhow, there you are in Bad Neuenahr, south of Bonn, in Germany, thinking to yourself: "How did I get here, and where can I get some nice Irish cooking?". Relax, you are in the right place, for just off the main strip of this nifty little spa town is a pub called The Killybegs, and in here Dominick and Josie Lodola produce some of the nicest pub food you will find anywhere.
So, in you go, and there, front of house, are a pair of plaques, signalling that the Killybegs has won the new Bord Bia Irish Pub Food Award, to stand alongside its award as Guinness Pub of the Year. The double!
And it's well deserved, for this is a lovely pub and, thanks to Josie, it has some truly ace cooking: an excellent Irish stew, perfect steak, lovely freshly made salads. But it's not alone; other pubs that featured well in the awards were the super-stylish O'Reilly's of Frankfurt, the raucous Old Emerald Isle of Berlin and the groovy O'Shea's of Nurnberg.
The winners gathered in Rudesheim last week to enjoy the craic and to receive their gongs, and to plan their strategies for success for the 2003 awards.

Alix Gardner's Website

Alix Gardner's cookery school has been a bedrock of educated good eating in Dublin for decades, and you can now access details of all the classes and courses on offer at her cookeryt school by clicking to visit that new website: go to it now!

http://www.tourismresources.ie/cht/agc.htm

Moreau Chablis Fish Cookery Competition

What do O'Callaghan-Walshe in Roscarbery, The Portmarnock Golf Club, the Old Schoolhouse in Swords, Gaby's of Killarney, The Waterfront in Rosses Point and Ashford Castle of Cong in Mayo all have in common? Answer: their chefs and owners are all looking forward to a trip to beautiful Chablis, in northern France, later in the year as their prize for winning the second Moreau Chablis Fish cookery competition.
This is a major prize for the chefs and owners - wouldn't we all love a trip to Christian Moreau's vineyards in Chablis! - and explains the keen competition which was evident amongst all the entrants this year. Some seriously inspired cooking from the winners showed that fish cookery in Ireland has really come of age.
Congrats to them all.

Wilsons Country Organic Potatoes

With grainy black and white photography worthy of some frisky Dolce E Gabbana advert - you know the stuff, sexy rusticity with tractors and mugs of tea, horses, hand ploughs, earthy artisans - and terrific packaging - a fine paper bag with a net of spuds and a handle - Wilson's Country Organic Potatoes shows that this dynamic County Armagh company is right on the money. With potatoes this sexy, we just wonder if - providing you whisper sweet nothings in their ear, of course - they disrobe themselves, and save you from having to get the spud peeler out.

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