Menu: Orchard and kitchen garden dining is a winner and patisserie treats are delish on the terrace
Darina Allen, Rory O’Connell and Rachel Allen. Picture Clare Keogh
Learn culinary techniques and skills or food history and folklore
The best lesson The Menu ever learnt is that the learning is never done, there is always time and opportunity to add to knowledge — and there’s nothing he loves more than expanding his culinary education.
Travel restrictions have curtailed the comings and goings between countries which now means there are several precious places available on The Ballymaloe Cookery School five-week Summer Cookery Course (July 12-13), one which The Menu himself longs to do at some stage in the future, when Progeny have been put out to pasture or wherever it is they go once their raising is complete.
A fully immersive course based on an organic farm, which also includes a micro-dairy and bread bakery and fermenting shed, students will be given a deep dive into the culinary world of seasonal and ethically-produced food and the techniques required to deliver it to the table, beginning with seeds going into the ground.
As well as learning how to first set up a working kitchen and then how to prepare and cook all manner of produce, from fruit and veg, dairy, soups, savoury vegetarian, fish and meat dishes, along with a delicious range of the sweet stuff, there is an additional armoury of specialist skills also covered. Subjects include fermentation and sourdough bread making, making cheese, yoghurt and butter, foraging on land and shore, organic growing, butchery, wine tasting.
While The Menu has witnessed on many occasions the wonderful collegiate atmosphere of the Cookery School in full flight, it is very obvious the students are working flat out, night and day, for there is serious food education afoot, ideal for anyone considering an entry into the professional food world and in need of a good all-round introduction to a truly sustainable food system.
cookingisfun.ie or Tel. 021 464 6785
Those in search of a more cerebral approach, less chopping board, more chalk board, would do very well to check out the Postgraduate Diploma in Irish Food Culture, at University College Cork, Ireland’s first and only programme focussed on the study of Irish Food Culture, a transdisciplinary programme involving expertise from the Schools of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences; Food and Nutritional Science; Geography; History; Folklore, and the School of Music and Theatre.
The programme covers amongst other things: history, heritage and folklore; contemporary food systems; and nutrition and health. Application closing date is August 27.
The Menu has yet to meet a bottle emanating from the Highbank Orchard distillery that was anything less than wonderful and Moongate Irish Gin, a bespoke limited edition collaboration between the Kilkenny-based distillery and Mount Juliet Estate to mark the hosting of 2021 Dubai Duty Free Irish Open, is unlikely to alter his thinking.
The fifth-generation family-run organic apple farm is a much-favoured destination of The Menu’s and he remains eternally inspired by Rod and Julie Calder-Potts’ ethos and commitment to sustainable food systems.
Rod’s collaboration with John Kelly, head chef in Mount Juliet Estate’s Michelin Star Lady Helen Restaurant, features 18 selected botanicals, one for each hole on the Mount Juliet Estate course and the 300 bottles are distilled in small batches using seasonal organic raw ingredients.
The Menu’s social secretary is all of a fluster these days trying to keep a handle on the plethora of openings and re-openings since June 7.
GROW HQ, home of the inspirational GIY, will be very much top of his list, most especially as the lovely restaurant is surrounded by four acres of edible gardens furnishing the kitchen with finest fare — and even when indoor dining returns, the HQ stretch tent amongst the summer fruit gardens and orchards will remain a huge draw.
Still on Deise turf, the newly-opened Food & Wine Emporium, on the Dunmore Road, in Waterford, emerges from Tony McMahon’s Bellissimo stable.
And, as well as a full food and wine deli retail offering, includes a Skyview Terrace for pastries, treats and coffees and bar-style menu. Once indoor dining returns, an extended seasonal menu will also be unveiled.
facebook.com/FoodAndWineEmporiumCafe
Holly's Café is a newly opened coffee shop in Kilkee, Co Clare, whose young proprietors, Holly Kelliher and Jon Butler, have earned their stripes in several Michelin-starred kitchens, so anticipate an upmarket take on homely treats as well as some stunning patisserie pastries, cakes and desserts, with a seating for 20 outside and a further 30 indoors when permissible.
The Menu recently made mention of Poacher’s Mixers new summer gift boxes — a most splendid addition to any al fresco drinks cabinet, most especially two new flavours recently added to the range.
Imbibers at one of The Menu’s recent and very restricted garden soirées, were positively raving after supping on an ice-cold G&T featuring Poachers’ Wild Tonic with Irish Elderflower and Lemon, noting the very pleasing and nicely understated impact of natural quinine, most excellent with a fine boutique Irish gin such as Moongate, the Highbank Orchard Distillery collaboration with Mount Juliet Restaurant.
But the real star of the evening’s show was a Ginger Beer with Irish chilli, featuring organic ginger and Irish apples and chilli, yielding a crisp, fresh beverage with a delightful little kick that was quite delicious on its own and truly excellent when paired with Kalak vodka and enough ice to float a polar bear, a perfect sundowner on a very warm evening.
