Wicklow food producers play as a team, supporting each other, promoting each other, championing each other, and Jeff and Tara Norman, chef and f-of-h at Backstage at Bel's, are Wicklow team players par excellence. Jeff's menus are festooned with the best local foods, and what isn’t drawn from their doorstep is drawn from artisans who work up and down the east coast. With such a stellar cast to help Jeff’s cooking to Premiership status, abetted by skills learnt and honed under such great figures as John Howard and Derry Clarke, Mr Norman then keep things piure, direct and simple - Breckland duck with honeyed parsnips; wild Wicklow venison pie. In Bel's, Garden of Ireland ingredients meet Garden of Ireland cooking, a loving synthesis.
