Joe McNamee: Looking forward to a joyous celebration of Irish food in Cork

Darina Allen with DJ Marcus O'Laoire & Butter Disco in the Big Shed at Ballymaloe Festival of Food 2025. Picture: Joleen Cronin

As I write, it is a serious struggle to remain indoors at my desk while outside is nothing but glorious sunshine and clear blue skies, a near existential balm after those endless monsoon months that devoured the first quarter of the year. It does however make it especially easy to recall one similar morning back in May 2013 when the sun shone with equal vigour over Ballymaloe House and its surrounds as I questioned my sanity at heading indoors to listen to two men talk on stage for a couple hours when I could instead be swilling iced Pimms and paddling in the sea.

True, it was an intriguing prospect, a chance to hear Claus Meyer, co-founder of Noma, then ‘the World’s Greatest Restaurant’ for three years running, but on such a blissful day, I was struggling to see the attraction. Two hours later, I stumbled back out, blinking in the sunlight, utterly exhilarated by Meyer’s fascinating, inspiring, and often riotously funny talk. 

I knew right then my home for the weekend would be Ballymaloe and the inaugural Ballymaloe Litfest of Food and Wine. The two days that followed included some of the most magical experiences and encounters of my life. The world’s very first literary festival solely devoted to food and drink, it arrived fully formed, featuring a roll call of many of the global superstars of the food world. 

There was also a a pronounced streak of radicalism running through the heart of the programme, driven by a desire to address the iniquities of global industrialised food production and the deeply dysfunctional global food system. Over four years, Litfest attracted a stellar billing of guests including (now-controversial) Rene Redzepi, plus Yotam Ottolenghi, Claudia Roden, Madhur Jaffrey, and Alice ‘Chez Panisse’ Waters. 

I reckon the appearance of the global guru of fermentation, Sandor Katz, in 2014, had no small part to play in the subsequent explosion of fermentation all across this country in the years that followed. Eventually, that aforementioned radical ethos became increasingly difficult to square with the fact the festival was sponsored by an Irish agri-biz giant and the four year run ended, albeit on an absolute high, in 2016.

This is the third year of Litfest’s ‘offspring’, the Ballymaloe Festival of Food, run by Bree Allen, another member of the extended Allen dynasty. The focus is less radical, more crowd-pleasing, but is fast evolving since its first outing in 2024 into an equally joyous celebration of Irish food. These days most of the non-Irish big names are coming from across the water in Britain rather than around the world but the current festival is cutting from a different sponsorship cloth to the glory days of Litfest.

Naturally, the indefatigable Darina, doyenne of Irish food, leads the bill and other big names include chef Sami Tamimi, co-founder of Ottolenghi, food writer Felicity Cloake, Jimmy Doherty of Jimmy’s Farm, drinks expert and Litfest veteran Dave Broom, and Thomasina Myers, another alumni, not only of Litfest but also of Ballymaloe Cookery School.

Irish names include Graham ‘Cupcake Guy’ Herterich, Catherine Fulvio, and chef Robbie McCauley of Michelin-starred Homestead Cottage, and the full programme includes live cookery demonstrations, panel talks, tastings, pop-up dining experiences, workshops, book signings, producer showcases, live music, and festival food. One of my top tips for the weekend is lunch cooked by Ed Wilson of London’s wonderful Brawn restaurant, who cooked a sublimely simple and simply sublime pop-up meal earlier this year in L’Atititude 51, in Cork, for a select group of diners.

One crucial element remains common to both festivals: The Big Shed, the enormous farm outbuilding that, in an almost last minute afterthought, Litfest director, chef Rory O’Connell, subsumed into the programme as a venue, serving as a dining hall by day and an after hours hoedown by night. After the first Litfest, I wrote that it was the beating heart of the whole festival, a place where ordinary punters and star guests easily mingled together, where incredible synergies between guests were born and where everyone ate, drank, and partied ’til the wee, wee hours. Once again, come hail or shine, it will be at the very heart of this third Ballymaloe Festival of Food.

• ballymaloefestivaloffood.com

TABLE TALK

High on my summer staycation bucket list is a visit to Goleen Harbour Eco-Resort, in one of the most stunning parts of glorious West Cork where two of my favourite things, music and food, are always on the menu. Their Summer Pop-Up series returns with cracking guest chefs each weekend, beginning with Tom Hayes’ Almost Anywhere (May 15/16) featuring sharing plates of local fish, grilled early summer vegetables, West Cork cheeses and natural wines.

• goleenharbour.ie

Paula Pastry at The Drawing Room sees top pastry chef Paula Stakelum pull out all the stops at Ashford Castle with an offering of deliciously refined decadence. Served in the Drawing Room, guests will begin with preserved crab apple iced tea, and freshly baked wild garlic sugar brioche. Then follows sweet baked treats showcasing the estate’s seasonal ingredients and botanicals and including Paula’s Legend chocolate with estate wood sorrel and dulce choux and strawberry shortbread with woodruff, with a glass of Champagne. Now that’s my idea of afternoon tea!

ashfordcastle.com

TODAY’S SPECIAL

There is a lovely clean fresh bite to a good harissa (a blend of chilli peppers, garlic, olive oil, spices) and The Real Olive Company’s Harissa (€3.50) is a very good harissa. It makes for a fine rub or marinade — especially good on grilled red mullet — and is a great last minute addition to soups or stews, while also adding a real spiky kick to a tapenade.

However, I find it a winning addition to many a homemade dip and recently relished its feisty frolicking as it jazzed up a creamy blend of tangy Glenilen yogurt and demure cannellini beans — and, yes, I did include celery in my assemblage of crudités.

• toonsbridgedairy.com