Neasa does it by the book

Nessa Robins has finally got round to putting her popular blog, Nessa’s Family Kitchen, onto the printed page in a new book, Apron Strings (New Island Cookery), a mixum-gatherum of recipes, household tips, party and picnic ideas and cockle-warming tales of family and friends and her efforts to feed ’em all. With this former nurse also furnishing a list of natural food-based home remedies, it’s the class of tome a body could wind up consulting from the crack of dawn to the dead of night. www.apronstrings.ie

Winners and winning festivals

Congrats to our own Darina Allen on her recent Lifetime Achievement award from the British Guild of Food Writers while Siobhán Ní Ghairbhith’s exceedingly handsome organic goat’s cheese, St Tola Ash Log, was named Supreme Champion 2013 at the recent Irish Cheese Awards. The Dunmore East Food Festival offers (Jun 21-23) ‘Food, Fish & Fun’ — all The Menu ever seems to do anyway in the impossibly beautiful little seaside town (www.discoverdunmore.com) but Taste of Dublin (Jun 13-16), on the other hand, has a list as long as your arm, including top restaurants and chefs, masterclasses, live entertainment and more than 120 producers, so expect big crowds in the glorious Iveagh Gardens. Finally, another tidy series of cookery classes is planned for Galway’s Aniar Restaurant and Boutique Cookery School, under the esteemed tutelage of JP McMahon. www.AniarRestaurant.ie