The Menu: International Women’s Day
The arrival of spring proper for The Menu is always heralded by the first stirrings from the wondrous West Waterford Festival of Food (Apr 11-14). Centred in and around the delightful town of Dungarvan, it is one of The Menu’s favourite events in the whole culinary calendar, and he is already salivating profusely over another stellar line-up, including Ross Lewis, Martijn Kajuiter, Rachel Allen, Richard Corrigan, Mickael Viljanen, Garrett Byrne and Martin Shanahan. But this year, The Menu has his eyes firmly fixed on one special event, a recreation of annual NYC food festival FergusStock, to be hosted by Paul and Máire Flynn, in The Tannery Restaurant. There are chefs out there with staggeringly high profiles thanks to the trojan work they put into boosting those staggeringly high profiles even, sometimes, God bless them, at the expense of actual cooking.
Fergus Henderson, on the other hand, appears to believe the cooking part to be more important, but while he may not be a household name, his influence pervades households all around the world. Indeed, it is hard to think of a currently more influential chef than the ‘Father of Offal’, revered by many of the world’s best chefs, author of the magnificent Nose to Tail Eating, and owner of St John restaurant, in London. He is joined on the night by his wife, partner and fellow cookbook author, Margot, another fine chef and co-proprietor of London’s Rochelle Canteen. Quite the coup for the festival, this is beyond mere pleasure for The Menu — we’re talking pilgrimage! www.westwaterfordfestivaloffood.com
