Over the decades, at home and abroad, The Menu has always attempted to support refill shops, where the consumer brings along their own containers thus negating the need to wastefully dispose of excess packaging.

Food news with Joe McNamee

Hilary Fennell meets TV presenter and Chef Takashi Miyazaki.

Joe McNamee brings you the latest news from the Irish food world.

Sage is a select band of Irish restaurants determinedly questing for that elusive modern Irish cuisine in the manner prescribed by Redzepi. 

As well as being a wonderful restaurateur, running two fine Dublin-based establishments, Cake Café and Slice, The Menu’s weekly colleague Michelle Darmody has always operated above and beyond the base requirements of the industry.

The splendid Taste of West Cork food festival (Sept 4-13) rolls around once more with yet another celebration of the food culture of Ireland’s original larder and the mighty programme is more ambitious than ever, 140+ events spanning 32 towns and villages, along with eight islands, throughout West Cork. 

Read on for the best in fine dining and street food, from where to get the best burgers to where to bring the family...

Fresh herbs can elevate the humdrum to the sublime, writes Joe McNamee. He asks four top chefs which herb is their favourite and how to best use it 

A graphically well-designed menu suggests cheering possibility like a well-dressed Christmas tree levitating on a bed of beautifully-packed gifts, some labelled with your name in generous Auntie Betty’s clear, strong, knowing hand. 

The Menu is taking his brain out of the vaults once more for its annual airing at The Great Irish Foodie Quiz 2014 (Oct 7@7.30pm). 

Food news with Joe McNamee.

Weekend food columnist and McKenna’s Guide contributing editor Joe McNamee is back with his annual accolades. Read on for his best in fine dining, pub grub, afternoon tea and much more, in Cork and around the country.

The Menu welcomes news of the 17th annual Knorr Student Chef of the Year competition.

Delicious Dingle

Harvest Heaven

Cap’n Menu eyes Kenmare Food Carnival

It’s champagne time for the country’s top chefs who made the grade in one of the most exclusive culinary and hospitality clubs in the land — the 100 Best Restaurants and 100 Best Places to Stay in Ireland.

A new year and time for The Menu to don his Gypsy Rose outfit to serve up some predictions for 2013. The Menu enjoyed some memorable 2012 events: Dungarvan Food Festival, The Irish Examiner Food Festival, International Slow Food at Terra Madre in Turin and Theatre of Food at the Electric Picnic and Liss Ard Music Festival. Equally, he was heartbroken to miss Savour Kilkenny Festival and Dingle Food Festival — that will be rectified in 2013.! But the inaugural Kenmare Food Carnival was a bit special, not as multi-faceted as the aforementioned but as one of the original culinary outposts in the dark pre-food days in Ireland, KFC has all makings of a future top food attraction. www.kenmarefoodcarnival.com

Beginning of first item

Make your Christmas a cracker with top tips from celebrity chefs, plus advice on creating the perfect festive table. Joe McNamee and Áilín Quinlan ask the experts.

Martijn Kajuiter will showcase some of his new book's dishes ‘Let’s Go Disco’ at The Cliff Townhouse, Dublin (Nov 19 & Dec 3).

There is “no recession in Irish, quality food”, according to John McKenna, author of the national food bible, The Irish Food Guide.

As several thousand happy and sated punters headed for the exits at the Irish Examiner Food Festival in Cork’s Fitzgerald Park yesterday evening, the light mist finally began to thicken, marking the end of the splendid weather that proved a vital ingredient in the tremendous success of a celebration of food and drink on Leeside.

WHILE there will always be charlatans in the restaurant trade — as in all walks of life — the huge surge in promoting local produce on Irish menus is, for the most part, genuine.

THE relentless rain failed to dampen the spirits of food lovers who flocked to Cork’s Fitzgerald Park to whet their appetites at TasteFest.