Cork on a Fork: This year's unique and iconic venues, from the Counting House to the cathedral

From cathedral suppers and chapel feasts to farm dinners and long tables, this year's Cork on a Fork is transforming the city's most iconic spaces into unforgettable dining experiences, writes Deirdre McArdle

 Aishling Moore, head chef and co-owner of Goldie restaurant who is collaborating with Claire Condon, joint owner of Good Day Deli and Michelin-starred Rob Krawczyk of Chestnut to collaborate on a very special dinner at Goldie Chapel as part of Cork on a Fork. Picture by Noel Sweeney

Now in its fifth year, Cork on a Fork has grown beyond any expectation.

From the first year, when 30 events took place, to the planned 150 events all over the city this year, it’s become a vibrant and essential part of Cork’s festival calendar.

Keeping the festival fresh and exciting is part of festival manager Niamh Murphy’s remit, along with Cork City Council. Naturally, the food will very much do the talking, but it will be helped by the many unique and iconic venues that are poised to host dining experiences, tasters and demos across the week.

A cathedral, a chapel, a farm shed, a fort, a former bank, the historic Counting House, and the city’s streets will all play a part in the festival, says Murphy.

“We are activating new venues this year, many of which will host dining events for the first time.”

One of the most dramatic new settings is St Fin Barre’s Cathedral, where Michelin-starred chefs Lewis Barker of Terre and Paul McDonald of Bastion will host The Cathedral Supper on Thursday, August 13.

Executive Chef Lewis Barker at the Michelin starred restaurant ‘Terre’ in The Castlemartyr resort. Picture Chani Anderson

“The cathedral has never before been used for a dining experience of this kind,” says Murphy.

A separate event on Saturday, August 15, will also take place on the grounds of the cathedral, where guests can pick up a picnic lunch for two at nearby Proby’s Kitchen and enjoy it on the historic grounds.

An event at Goldie Chapel for last year's Cork on a Fork Fest.

In another first, on August 16, Goldie Chapel, a high Victorian Gothic Revival chapel at Nano Nagle Place, will host a unique chef collaboration event featuring some of Cork’s hottest chefs — Bib Gourmand chef and Irish Examiner Weekend columnist Aishling Moore of Goldie, Michelin-starred chef Rob Krawczyk of Chestnut, and Eric Nolan of Good Day Deli.

Moore can’t wait. “Getting the opportunity to cook in iconic locations is so exciting. When Niamh floated the idea of the Goldie Chapel, she had me at
Goldie,” she laughs.

“But yeah, I love Nano Nagle Place. It’s such a beautiful space within the city, and then an opportunity to collaborate with Rob, whom I’ve worked with before on a couple of things, and the gang in Good Day Deli, is amazing. I’m always searching for opportunities to collaborate; they fuel me and inspire my work.”

The event will be a four-course dinner. Krawczyk will cook the first two courses, Good Day Deli will be taking care of the dessert, while Moore’s Goldie will be doing the main course.

Aishling Moore, head chef and co-owner of Goldie pictured with Claire Condon, joint owner of Good Day Deli who are joining Michelin-starred Rob Krawczyk of Chestnut to collaborate on a very special dinner at Goldie Chapel as part of Cork on a Fork. Picture by Noel Sweeney

“Fish cooked to order for 56 people in a listed building is going to be interesting. Figuring out where we can get power and where we can’t have power is still very much in the discovery phase at the moment.

“But luckily, we’re working with people who are experts in their field at TS Events. But that’s the part people don’t see — the behind-the-scenes work. You know, chef-level food, it’s not all about talent; it’s about organisation and logistics and discipline.”

But Moore and her team are what you might call dab hands at thinking (or cooking) on their feet.

“We’ve been invited to cook all over the country, and we’ve cooked in America and Canada in obscure places. Two years ago, we cooked dinner on a ship for the Dungarvan Food Festival; the tide was out, so the boat was at a 90-degree angle.”

For Moore, who was awarded Young Chef of the Year by Food & Wine magazine in 2023, events like this are one of the reasons she loves her job. “In this job I’m constantly challenged, and doing things like this outside the restaurant reinforces that. It’s a great test. At this stage it’s all just lists of lists of lists, but anything is possible once you’re organised and you have a good team around you.”

While the Cork chef doesn’t tell me exactly what’s on the menu for the event, she reiterates the uniqueness of the experience. “The one thing that I can tell you about what’s going to happen on that night is this is never going to happen again. Not in that format. Not with those people. The food would never be the same. And I think it’s very special to be involved in things like that.”

When Murphy says Cork City Council is “activating” venues all over the city, she’s not exaggerating. It’s as if the streets and history of Cork itself want to be involved. Both McCurtain Street and Pembroke Street will be the scene for long-table events: The VQ Shared Table event (arguably the hottest ticket of the festival) takes place on August 12, and the Pembroke Street Table will be on Sunday, August 16.

Paul McDonald, chef/owner, Bastion, Kinsale, Co. Cork. File Picture Denis Minihane.

On Friday, August 15, the iconic Elizabeth Fort will be the scene for Fire, Food and Fort, a live-fire cooking event hosted by Samuel McKenna of the McKenna Guides and featuring demos by Harrison Sharpe, Brian Murray, Victor Franca and Arun Kapil.

Glenbrook Farm in Whites Cross will be hosting a pop-up four-course dinner in its rustic calf shed on Wednesday, August 12. Chef Sarah Roche will serve up ingredients from Glenbrook Farm and Cork Rooftop Farm, creating an authentic farm-to-fork, zero-mile dining experience.

Weekend’s newest food columnist Eunice Power will be cooking up a storm at No. 1 Lapp’s Quay on Thursday, August 13, with fellow RTÉ Today chefs Alex Petit and Mags Roche. No. 1 Lapp’s Quay is the historic site of the former Cork Savings Bank, a listed building built in the early 1840s in the Neoclassical style.

Speaking of historic buildings, the Counting House — the former Beamish & Crawford site, which will soon become home to the city library — will open to the public for the first time in years as it plays host to a Drinks Theatre that will run over the entire weekend. This will be a wonderful opportunity for Cork people to get a glimpse behind the doors of this wonderful building.

For Moore, the Cork on a Fork festival is a boon for the local hospitality industry: “For an industry going through a well-documented difficult time, the way everyone is going all out to make this festival happen for Cork is really special,” she says.

“When I started cooking 14 years ago, these events weren’t happening in Cork, but now it just seems to be part of the hospitality industry. There is a clear desire and an appetite for it, not just from within the industry, but from outside the industry. People are looking for unconventional dining experiences or one-off experiences, and this festival is offering exactly that.”

  

Eunice Power. File Picture

Over the past decade, Cork has enhanced its reputation as the food capital of Ireland. From her kitchen vantage point, Moore says the tourism we’re seeing coming into Cork appears to be food-led. She’s quick to point out how important it is for chefs like her to acknowledge the quality of the produce coming from Cork and the difference that’s making to the food she serves up.

“This festival is a great opportunity for us chefs to really speak proudly about our food producers and introduce some of our customers to more food that’s been grown in Cork, reared in Cork, produced in Cork, because that adds so much more to the diversity of our city. If we want to have a wonderful, bustling, dynamic food scene, it needs to start in the ground, and we need people growing the food.” Aside from cooking during the festival, the Cork chef hopes to find the time to
attend some of the many demos ha pening around the city.

“There’s so much going on, it’s such a wonderful festival to be part of and to attend. For those few days, it really feels like Cork is the centre of the
universe.”

• For the full list of events, see corkcity.ie/en/cork-on-a-fork-fest