Cork on a Fork Festival: All of the free events to check out across the city this week
Cork on a Fork Festival is serving up Cork’s most delicious week. Picture: Joleen Cronin
Cork on a Fork Festival is back with a host of fantastic food events taking place across the city this week.
Kicking off on Wednesday, the city’s latest food festival has five days of feasting. The jam-packed programme includes everything from cooking demos, food trails, masterclasses, face painting, and lots of family-friendly fun.
If you want a taste of what’s on offer, here is a selection of free events taking place as part of this year’s Cork on a Fork Festival.
Cork City Council and Cork Food Policy Council invite those interested in creating and producing healthier and sustainable food to a conference on the topic.
Cork City Library will host a cookbook exchange in a cargo bike outside the building from Wednesday to Saturday as part of the festival.
Cork Chef Orla McAndrew will host a cookery demonstration and sampling using ingredients from the English Market.
Fun for the whole family, the Butter Museum has loads of new demos and talks on topics like the traditional soda bread and butter, spiced beef, traditional sweets from Shandon Sweets as well as a cake tasting with Myo’s café and more.
A series of talks will take place at the Cork on a Fork Festival Stage in the Crawford Art Gallery Theatre across Friday and Saturday.
10am: Magic of Milk: The science behind dairy products
11am: Cork Food Culture in Literature, History and Heritage with Regina Sexton and more.
12pm: Cork Producers Panel Discussion with Ballymaloe Foods, St Patrick’s Distillery, West Cork Eggs Ltd., West Cork Biscuit, hosted by Guaranteed Irish.
3pm: A walk through the supermarket: Food trends and their impact on health and planet.
4pm: Of Irish and Oysters: A Salty History of Shuckin’Around and Irish Culture, according to Patrick McMurray — Oyster Sommelier and Champion Shucker.
11am: From Farmer to Cheese Maker with Dan Hegarty.
12pm Cork on a Fork — a new Cork perspective. A panel discussion with leading names in Cork food who are not originally from the city.
4pm: Cork Food — a food writers’ perspective: A panel with Cork’s leading food writers.
Enjoy free Clonakilty Black Pudding Tasters outside Crawford Art Gallery on Emmet Place.
There will be free limited face painting on Maylor St as well as games like giant Jenga, connect four, corn hole and more, with the Let’s Play Cork leaders. Note: this is not supervised play.
A Festival Demo Marquee and Festival Market will take place all day on Saturday with a host of exciting talks, demos and tastings. There will also be market stalls to browse, free face-painting for little ones and giant outdoor games from 2pm-4pm.
9.30am: From Farm to Fork cooking demo with Farmgate: A look at cosy comforting autumn food.
10.45am: Leftover Larder Love — zero waste cookery demo with Orla McAndrew.
12pm: Nutrition and Healthy Snacks for You and Your Family: A talk and demo with Mary Carmody Nutritionist and Mindset Coach and Consultant.
1pm: Cooking demo with Rachel Allen.
2pm: The Art of Culinary Sustainability: A chat with Takashi Miyazaki from Ichigo Ichie, Aishling Moore from Goldie and Claire Condon from Good Day Deli.
3pm: Rebel County Mystery Box Cook-Off: Three of Cork’s chefs take to the stage in a race against the clock to cook and serve up a quickfire dish using ingredients sourced locally. This features Brian Murray (Glass Curtain) and Darren Kennedy (former Sage Midleton) and Ali Honour (The Imperial).
4pm: Cooking demo with William Murray of Currabinny.
5pm: Pupusas cooking demo and sampling with Cork Migrant Centre.
Head to the Children’s Library to celebrate food through stories with storyteller Maria Gillen. This is a free family-friendly event, suitable for children aged 3+.
Community gardens throughout the city will open up to the public during the festival. Enjoy tours, workshops, talks, demos and tastings.
There will be free limited face painting on Cornmarket Street as well as games like giant Jenga, connect four, corn hole and more, with the Let’s Play Cork leaders. Note: this is not supervised play.
Good Day Deli at Nano Nagle Place is hosting talks and demos with their producers in CorkHear from West Cork Coffee, Richards Little Farm, Hive Mind and more.
- The full festival programme can be found at corkcity.ie/en/cork-on-a-fork-fest.
