The Menu: Kilkenny festival
Quite some time ago, in the third or fourth flush of his youth, and always a great man for the chuckling, The Menu was inclined to fetch up in the Marble City to gee-up his giggle gland at the Cat Laughs Comedy Festival and developed a great fondness for Kilkenny and its hinterland. Since then, the place has undergone quite some culinary transformation and Savour Kilkenny Festival of Food (Oct 24-28) is a reflection of that astonishing evolution which culminated in recent Michelin Stars for Garret Byrne and Brid Hannon at La Campagne and for Cormac Rowe and team at Mount Juliet. Top of the pile for The Menu must be a masterclass from The Professor of Ballymaloe Cookery School, Rory O’Connell, a truly world-class teacher. There is a not-to-be-missed pop-up restaurant from the sublimely talented Yannick and Louise, a Food Pairing workshop for the experimentally-inclined, but The Menu would not think one bit less of you were you to park your tush by the always-popular Chef’s Table for a couple of days, sampling the creations of all manner of local and international culinary talent. www.savourkilkenny.com
