Back to the future

FOR the past few weeks, I’ve been taking regular phone calls from American food writers who are ‘filing copy’ for their St Patrick’s Day columns - from Nebraska to Chicago, New York to Ohio.

Everyone seems to be convinced that we live on corned beef and cabbage here.

My traditional food book has just been republished in the US; it was well received the first time around in 1995, but this time is causing a real stir. There appears to be a much greater interest in Irish food culture and history. They are fascinated by the stories of the food of the country houses, the simple farmhouse fare and the food of the wild - foraged in the woods and along the seashore.