The Menu: Ballyhoura Mountain Mushrooms
The Menu has an appetite, but even he hesitates when confronted by the veritable smorgasbord of events at this year’s A Taste of West Cork Food Festival, a culinary shindig with real meat on its bones. There’s food movies, theatre, opera, photography and history; trips to farms and producers; practical demos including clay oven building, GIY, budget cooking, fermenting foods and myriad opportunities to eat fabulous West Cork produce, from casual stall-grazing to more formal dining, including a special banquet at the West Cork Hotel cooked by Donegalman Gary O’Hanlon, winner of last year’s Celtic Cookoff. The Menu will be giving his tuppence-worth at what promises to be a fascinating Belling Food Forum (Sat, Sept 7) devising a promotional strategy for West Cork, but a highlight of last year’s festival was the Secondary Schools Cooking Competition which saw visiting chefs stunned by the culinary calibre of the young contestants and The Menu shall be in attendance. www.atasteofwestcork.com
