The menu
Having returned hale and hearty from another wonderful Theatre of Food at the Electric Picnic, The Menu brings tidings of a splendid initiative, Skillet, from his old pals, erstwhile chef and culinary educator Anthony O’Toole and multi-award winning American food writer Mei Chin, in conjunction with Tommy Bergin, of the YMCA.
Skillet is a programme aimed at vulnerable and at-risk unemployed youth in South Dublin and will teach them the fundamentals of the culinary industry, allowing them to host their own pop-up restaurant. Anthony will conduct the day-to-day kitchen training but some of the industry’s stars will act as mentors and trainers, including chefs Derry Clarke and Ross Lewis along with Chapter One maitre d’ Declan Maxwell and Food & Wine writer Aoife Carrigy, the latter pair looking after front-of-house training. All training takes place in King’s Inn, and the pop-up will take place in the Royal College of Surgeons (Sept 16). However, Skillet is desperately in need of funding to ensure the full training programme can go ahead and The Menu urges all to donate early and often as even a couple of bucks will go a long way. To donate or for more, see facebook.com/dublinskillet and crowd-funding website www.gofundme/doqfes
Meanwhile, brace yourself for a flurry of festivals: Midleton Food & Drink Festival (Sept 13) rolls around with edible events for all appetites but The Menu’s old mucker, chef Kevin Aherne of Sage Restaurant, will be starting early with two nights of Sage to Sea (Sept 10 & 11), a pleasure cruise on the ocean wave featuring food, music, and more than a few shanties before he returns to land to host a series of demos from local chefs in the Sage Courtyard (midletonfoodfestival.ie; sagerestaurant.ie).
Also in full swing next weekend are Taste of West Cork Food Festival (Sept 5-14, atasteofwestcork.com) and Waterford Harvest Festival (Sept 12-14, waterfordharvestfestival.ie) and if, like The Menu, you’re a martyr to the cup of Joe, you’ll be wanting to check out the inaugural Dublin Coffee & Tea Festival (Sept 12-14), at the RDS, keeping your eyes peeled for Cork-based Badger & Dodo and Bewley’s master roaster Gareth Scully. Tell Gareth The Menu sent you along for some of his special ‘festival roasts’ (dublincoffeefestival.com).
Always a man to look a gift oyster in the mouth, The Menu will be sure to pay a visit to The Cliff Townhouse for its own Oyster Festival, running for the whole of September (theclifftownhouse.com). Following a fine trip to Caragh Lake last year in the company of No 1 Son, The Menu was greatly taken with the lovely town of Killorglin and its hinterland so heartily recommends the Flavour of Killorglin Food Festival (Sept 12-14), in particular, The Caragh Lake Gourmet Challenge, a combo of adventure activity and eating. flavourofkillorglin.com
Like most Gaels, The Menu grew up with the notion that corn on the cob was most likely grown in the deep freeze. He eventually chawed down on some imported fresh corn and the difference was remarkable but still nowhere remotely as fine as the corn grown by Vince O’Donovan, in Innishannon, Co Cork, sold from his roadside stall, in Mother Nature’s perfect packaging, the palm-like leaves completely encasing the cob. The Menu is very partial indeed boiled cob slathered in a small butter mountain but the earth near stopped on its axis when he threw a few on the BBQ, still encased in their leafy coats. And this time the sweet and oh-so-juicy little yellow pods of pure sunshine carried a smoky undertone that had The Menu near weeping with ecstasy. Vince O’Donovan, Tel 087 248 6031
