The Menu: A restaurant in a car park, fighting food waste and proper pesto from Galway
Glovebox is an exciting and innovative new space on the upper flowers a multi-story carpark in Dublin, offering food and drink along with a whole range of social and cultural experiences.
If the emissions from global food waste were assigned to one country, it would take third place only behind the US and China as the highest emitter of carbon dioxide into the earth’s atmosphere with a staggering 3.3 billion tons each year, with some 1.3 billions tons of food wasted around the world annually, a figure that should also be considered in light of the 870 million people who go hungry each day around the world. In Ireland, we are no less guilty, wasting enough food to fill Croke Park to the brim twice over and then return for a third time to fill it up again to half way.
The truly superb FoodCloud began back in 2012 when two young students, motivated by a love of food and appalled by food waste, Iseult Ward and Aoibheann O’Brien, first conceived of the idea and they have since steered the ship as it has become an international organisation re-directing potentially wasted food, connecting retailers to deserving charities and communities, using their technology platform to complement and enhance the operation of food banks, and establishing large storage and distribution hubs to manage larger volumes.
FoodCloud have now launched a brand new six-part online content series All Taste, Zero Waste, a show pitching celebrity chefs against charity chefs, battling it out to help the planet, as part of a campaign to drive awareness of the climate issue of food waste. In each episode, the chefs create delicious dishes using surplus food generously donated by food industry partners, sharing hints and tips on how to reduce our food waste, and hearing stories of the positive impact redirected food waste can have on communities all over Ireland. Chefs involved include Mark Moriarty, Jess Murphy, Donal Skehan, Currabinny’s William Murray, Eric Matthews and Holly Dalton. Episodes can be accessed on the website: https://food.cloud/about
The best response to challenging times is to respond with creativity and innovation and the finest practitioners in the hospitality sector usually have those qualities in spades. The Menu recently wrote of chefs Niall Davidson and Hugh Higgins working with BCP Capital, to unveil their visionary Allta rooftop restaurant on top of Dublin’s Trinity Car Park, which was almost immediately booked out through to the end of 2021. Shortly afterwards, the final part of this ambitious project, Glovebox, was launched.
Glovebox is a new cultural space for art, music, cocktails and great food taking place in the floor below Aalta Winter House and will remain open until at least next May or June. As well as featuring visual arts, events, music and live DJs on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, there will be all manner of creative dining choices (smoked Gubbeen fries; lamb shoulder, crispy potatoes, creme fraiche; tempura soft-shell crab with kimchi; lobster rolls) and equally imaginative beverage options with which to wash it all down. Over 25 Irish and international artists will be featured at Glovebox, curated by artist/designer, Ronan Dillon. Live events every Wednesday will include orchestras and artists’ talks, and as the weather warms up in Spring, these will extend on to the spacious open-air rooftop terrace. Glovebox ticket prices (€20 pp) are redeemable against snacks and drinks.Â
- www.instagram.com for bookings and information @alltawinterhouse & @g.l.o.v.e.b.o.x
After a pandemic-triggered hiatus, Ireland’s premier cooking competition for young professional chefs, Euro-Toques Young Chef of the Year, has returned and there is still just over a week remaining for young chefs or other chefs, mentors, and restaurateurs wishing to express an interest on behalf of a young chef, should they believe she/he has what it takes. Open to professional young chefs, the previous age limit of 26 has been raised this year to 28, to include those unable to enter over the past two years because of Covid-19.
Participating chefs take part in several educational activities, producer visits and workshops that will support and guide them to the semi-finals and finals, which this year moves forward to June as opposed to the more usual finals in November.
- To express an interest, office@euro-toques.ie or or DM on social media @eurotoquesirl.Â
- Further information: www.euro-toques.ie
Making basil pesto requires substantial amounts of basil and that has always been a fraught issue as so much of the classic Genovese pesto uses basil heavily sprayed with herbicides and insecticides and The Menu generally likes to avoid anything at all that ends with ‘-cide,’ especially if is going into his body.
If we are to continuing producing food in the volumes required on a planet increasingly compromised by the impact of climate change and yet do so without using toxic pesticides, herbicides and fungicides, then we will also have to investigate the potential of progressive, new technology.
Galmere Foods, based in Galway, are growing all the basil required for their own Irish-made pesto, using vertical growing towers and LED lighting technology, which enables them to produce sufficient quantities of the herb, 12 months of the year. The finished product isn’t bad either, although The Menu reckons cheddar cheese, rapeseed and pomace oil are superfluous to the classic recipe of just EV olive oil, basil, pine nuts, garlic and Parmigianno Reggiano, or Grana Padano as a substitute.
Home from another gruelling day at the academic pitface, The Progeny were more than happy to wolf it down, mixed into a bowl of steaming hot al dente fusilli with plenty of extra butter for the pasta!
