Do, please, come in and sit down, 2018! Extend your palm thusly, that Mystic Menu might divine your path over the coming 12 months. As always, this Al-Menu-nac for the year ahead begins with a brief look at predictions delivered in January last year, the hits and the misses.

Looking for a staycation with a difference? From new menus to room revamps, Ciara McDonnell uncovers the hotels offering that little bit extra in 2018.

Catch up on this morning's headlines...

Richard Corrigan’s Virginia Park Lodge Hotel in Co Cavan suffered an operating loss of £416,074 (€465,000) last year, newly filed accounts show.

Chef Adrian Martin says that the reason why he’s so skinny is that he cooks everything himself from scratch.

The Late Late Show airs this Friday from 9.35pm on RTÉ 1.

The Minister for Social Protection Leo Varadkar will try to encourage even more visitors to Temple Bar later when he launches a new festival of culture.

Catherine Shanahan experienced Georgian Dublin at its finest at the Cliff Townhouse on St Stephen’s Green.

He’s an obscenely talented chef that unusually also has a great head for business. Roz Crowley finds Mark Hix has lots of advice for people dreaming of opening a food business.

Check out our guide to what to watch on TV tonight.

A new restaurant and cookery school in Co Cavan is set to create up to 70 new jobs.

While The Menu’s Teddy Bear still occasionally sends a card on the odd Christmas, it is many a long year since they have enjoyed a jorum let alone a cuddle.

Despite the summer stretch in the day, The Menu feels nothing short of a turbo-booster for the bould Neidín will enable him to attend every last one of an ever-increasing proliferation of food festivals around this glorious island.

Vintage rally to launch new cider

SATURDAY

Food for thought at West Waterford festival

Dublin became a part of Hollywood yesterday when movie stars, directors, celebrities and fully paid-up members of the glitterati attended the European premiere of the new Steven Spielberg movie Lincoln in the city’s Savoy Cinema.

The Cork-based spice company Green Saffron has doubled the number of employees from six to 12 in the last two years.

Irish celebrity chef Richard Corrigan’s restaurant firm continues to cook up a storm with pre-tax profits at the group almost topping €1m last year.

Giles Clark at Cake Cafe

Angela Hartnett worked alongside Gordon Ramsay for years, so the Michelin star-holder should be well able for anything the Waterford Festival of Food throws at her today.

Thousands of foodies are expected in Dungarvan this weekend as the fifth Waterford Festival of Food celebrates the best of local artisan food producers.

Mayor of London Boris Johnson insists he has no regrets over “offensive” comments he made in relation to a St Patrick’s Day event.

1. Ashford Castle, Co Mayo

A scouting trip to France led to a eureka moment for Paul Flynn when he abandoned crispy pancakes for fancy chicken. He tells Joe McNamee about a new challenge

A GREAT meal out often has one best dish, a mouth-watering triumph whose memory outlasts all others.

A PARADE of pigs will get the fourth annual Waterford Festival of Food under way today with cooks, experts and foodies set to descend on the region for the weekend.

A BUNCH of craft “pigs” fashioned by local schoolchildren helped unveil the programme of events for this year’s Waterford Festival of Food, expected to attract thousands of visitors to the south-east.

GARDAÍ have sent a file to the Director of Public Prosecutions following an investigation into allegations that popular Cork DJ Neil Prendeville exposed himself on board an Aer Lingus flight last October.

Claire O’Sullivan examines the London timeline and finds Neil Prendeville’s excuse simply doesn’t add up.

THE group which invited broadcaster Neil Prendeville to London as part of a promotional drive hopes to land up to €500,000 worth of business tourism from that trip alone.

Cork radio presenter Neil Prendeville today blamed a mixture of alcohol and painkillers for his failure to remember an incident in which he exposed himself on a flight.

A well-known Cork radio personality issued a heartfelt apology on-air this morning after newspaper reports that he is to be referred to gardaí for having committed an alleged sex act on an Aer Lingus flight.

AER LINGUS is in the process of making a formal complaint to gardaí following an incident in which high-profile radio presenter Neil Prendeville exposed himself in public view on a flight between London and Cork.

HOTEL managers, business chiefs and politicians jetted into London yesterday with the aim of bringing millions of euro worth of business to Cork.

Leading figures in the Irish food industry say we should be capitalising on our status as a GM-free nation.

YOU’VE heard of the naked chef — now meet the naked gardeners.

AN AWARD-WINNING project which targets teens at risk of being homeless is about to break new ground – literally.

CELEBRITY chef Richard Corrigan sells high-priced, good-looking food which is far from the reality of most people’s lives. More power to him.

IN your editorial headlined ‘Credibility cannot be put at risk’ (May 9), you quote Richard Corrigan, referring to Bord Bia, as stating that “the board’s quality assurance scheme does not ensure products are Irish”.

LEADING Irish chef Richard Corrigan has called for the abolition of Ireland’s food industry champion claiming Bord Bia’s stamp was being put on food coming in from abroad.

THERE are many, many issues surrounding food. For us, in a land of abundance, it has become one of society’s dividing lines, wavering between an ostentatious fashion statement and a sustenance issue.