The Menu: Gift vouchers and online cookery courses for Christmas
Charity fundraiser: Ahmet Dede, chef and co-proprietor of Dede at the Customs House in Baltmore
At the time of writing, Level 5 restrictions are still in effect but with the hope they will be eased next week allowing further travel. This would give greater access to what sounds like a most lovely outdoor event: a charity fundraiser in aid of St Vincent De Paul Skibbereen and Skibbereen Family Centre, to be held in Dede at The Customs House, in Baltimore. This is the venue where The Menu last summer enjoyed one of his most treasured of all culinary experiences, a very special dining experience in a year all too bereft of them.
Chef Ahmet Dede, formerly Michelin-starred chef of The Mews, and whom The Menu has no doubt would be Michelin-starred chef/co-proprietor (along with Maria Archer) of Dede at the Customs House were it not for Covid 19, will prepare a special kebab menu (beef, chicken and falafel, with flatbreads and sides) along with dessert, mulled wine and hot apple cider, mince pies, gingerbread cookies and plum pudding. In addition, there will be a wine tasting courtesy of Wines Direct, Cheese Tasting with Kevin Collins, of Field’s, in Skibbereen, and a gin tasting from West Cork Distillers. Tickets are just €15 a head (€9 for children) with a optional donations box for the tastings — and punters are invited to wear their finest Christmas hats and jumpers while Ahmet and Dede will furnish the live festive music. The in-house shop and deli will also be open, selling a range of fine sourdough breads, cakes, rotisserie chickens, salads and dips. All Covid 19 restrictions will be strictly observed in the covered heated outdoor courtyard to the rear of the restaurant and numbers will be limited with four sessions (noon, 2pm, 4pm and 6pm) and booking is essential. Tel. 087 2128345/028-48248. customhousebaltimore.com
It’s tough enough to open a dining establishment at the best of times but this is quite probably the worst time of all to commence any hospitality venture but those who engage in the trade tend to have a certain doggedness of character about them, none more so than Michelin-starred chef, Enda McEvoy and his partner Sinead Meacle, the husband and wife team behind Galway’s sustainable Michelin-starred Loam. They have just recently opened Éan, a brand new 56-seater bakery, restaurant & wine bar, on Druid Lane, in Galway, sharing the same building as the globally renowned Druid Theatre Company.
Having traded through Level 5 restrictions with a limited menu of bakes and sandwiches, a lifting of restrictions and return to seated dining will reveal a menu of superb bakes and pastries created daily by pastry chef, Lauren Goudeket (of Loam), served alongside seasonally-inspired breakfast (available until 11am), lunch and dinner (wine bar). And The Menu is especially delighted to learn the head chef will be Christine Walsh with whom The Menu has been greatly impressed ever since a few days passed working a stage alongside her some years ago. Christine will oversee an innovative menu and will produce many of the pickles, ferments and charcuterie on offer in what is destined to be a superb addition to the national dining portfolio, a welcome fillip in these fraught times.
The Menu suspects that one very positive consequence of The Year of Covid 19 is the opening up of so many business models to adapt to a greatly changed operating environment, not least the cookery schools, so many having now gone online to offer classes — in the process greatly expanding access for prospective customers from all over the country and far beyond these shores. While The Menu is in mourning that he will not get to visit his beloved Dingle this year, it is quite some consolation to be able to take one of the cookery classes on offer from the current Irish Cookery School of the Year: Dingle Cookery School. The next up in an ongoing series of classes is a Fish Cookery cook-along class (Dec 4) in partnership with Sustainable Seafood Ireland in which you cook your fish along with chef Mark Murphy as he leads the class. Also upcoming is Cooking Christmas Dinner (Dec 9 & Dec 16) Classes are priced from €35.
Booking on dinglecookeryschool.com
Eccles Hotel & Spa, in Glengarriff in West Cork is holding a flash sale with an opportunity to pick up a couple of discounted stocking fillers — not least a night in the characterful old hotel, including mulled wine on arrival served next to a roaring fire, three-course dinner from chef, Eddie Atwell, and a delicious breakfast the following morning. And in light of the current uncertainty around restrictions now and into the future, all vouchers are commendably valid for the next five years!
The Menu takes his sampling duties seriously, always giving each and every Irish product he comes across his full attention while tasting. But when it came to running the rule over the Keogh’s Popcorn range, his notes for once fell somewhat shy of his more usual lengthy descriptions.
While he noted that Keogh’s, creators of fine Irish handmade crisps had applied similar standards to their popcorn, creating a bagged popcorn superior to most others on the market and flavours (Honey & Sea Salt; Butter & Sea Salt; Irish Atlantic Sea Salt) were all sound and balanced, a most ‘buttery’ Butter & Sea Salt, the pick of the bunch. However more extended sampling was conducted by the thieving pack rats that pass for progeny around these parts who made off with the lot and when pressed pronounced them ‘delicious!’.
