The Menu only ever believes the season proper has begun with the annual advent of the West Waterford Festival of Food (April 26-28), in delightful Dungarvan.

A very special multi-course dinner in aid of two Cork charities will see four Cork Michelin-starred chefs come together, writes Joe McNamee.

The Menu is delighted to bring further detail to an item alluded to in last weekend’s column, news of what promises to be one of the highlights of this year’s culinary calendar, a fundraising dinner (April 29) in aid of two Leeside charities, Cork Penny Dinners, recent recipients of the prestigious Irish Food Writers’ Guild social responsibility award, and Cork Simon.

There’ll be no fear of too many cooks spoiling the broth when four Michelin star winning chefs join forces later this month to raise money for two Cork homeless charities.

The Square Table, No 5, The Square, Blarney, Co Cork.

We will do our utmost to carry on her incredible legacy.

A pioneer who made her home into Michelin star restaurant Food or cooking in Ireland didn’t begin with Myrtle Allen but when it comes to evaluating the very best of modern Irish cuisine, it is near impossible not to establish some link back to the pioneering spirit of this East Cork farmer’s wife who transformed her home into a Michelin star restaurant.

Last week I was at an event we hosted for clients in the Cork area which was hosted in the superb Páirc Uí Chaoimh facilities.

The summer festival season is already under way with more of the big guns readying themselves in the weeks ahead.

It’s another chapter in the success story of Chapter One, with the fine dining Dublin venue voted the best restaurant in Ireland for the ninth time by the Restaurant Association of Ireland.

St Patrick’s Day gets bigger and better every year, as more than 100 million people around the world celebrate our national holiday with the Irish diaspora.

 

Catex — Ireland’s largest food service and hospitality exhibition — returns once more to Dublin’s RDS, on February 21-23. 

Neidín is already on the steroids getting ready to haul The Menu’s enormous carcass west to one of his most favourite annual food outings, The Dingle Food Festival (Sept 30-Oct 2) in association with the Blás na hÉireann National Irish Food Award.

The Michelin-star Dublin restaurant Chapter One has increased its accumulated profits to €308,734.

Perfect picnic

For a spell, the gastronomic reputation of the lovely seaside town of Kinsale appeared to be succumbing to a certain flabbiness of practice but recent years has seen the arrival of some sharp new operators raising standards across the board. 

Our top chefs pay tribute to their mums, and recall some of the childhood meals that inspired their future careers. Joe McNamee reports.

Taking its inspiration from TED’s 15-minute talks, a bold new food conference has invited the world’s top chefs to Galway to discuss the future of food. Michelle Darmody meets some of the key players.

The decorated Dublin restaurant co-owned by the ‘Queen’s chef’, Ross Lewis, is enjoying the fruits of the capital’s boom in fine dining, by recording weekly revenues of over €51,000.

Despite disappointing ticket sales, the organisers of a major music festival in Kerry next weekend have pledged all acts on the programme will be performing.

THE UNION OF GOOD FOOD AND WINE

It’s time for a return to the Marble City where Bia Beag are reprising their Meet the Bakers event (January 24). 

Though it had been some time, at least a couple of Ice Ages, since The Menu had last trod barefoot through the fields to school, several years ago he returned to the groves of Academe.

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.

The largest Electric Picnic in the event’s 11-year history came to a close last night with a massive thumbs-up from most of the 40,000 punters who attended the three-day event in Stradbally, Co Laois.

The cash pile at one of the country’s best known restaurants, the Michelin- starred Chapter One, last year jumped more than 40% to almost €1m. 

The big event food event of this weekend is a rather stellar demo line-up including Ross Lewis, Frankie Mallon, Derry Clarke, Darina Allen and Rachel Allen in the Chef’s Kitchen at the Westport Music Festival.

A hound for knowledge, The Menu is never done learning and always on the lookout for new culinary educational opportunities.

WE’VE gone crazy for seaweed in recent times; I’ve woken up to phenomenal variety of sea vegetables around our coast.

Summer in Ireland is festival season. Liz O’Brien picks some of the nation’s favourites — and reveals the people who work long and hard behind the scenes to make your summer happen.

The second Kerrygold Ballymaloe Litfest of Food & Wine ended last night where it all began just 48 hours previously, in the ‘Big Shed’ at Ballymaloe House in East Cork.

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.

There’s nothing more heart-warming than the comfort food of childhood — dishes usually made by mum.

Chef’s Table, Chapter One,