Tourism and local industry tell Claire O’Sullivan there will be huge damage caused by kelp harvesting in Bantry, but the harvesting company says otherwise.

Betimes, The Menu is inclined to think there are more food awards than actual foodstuffs, so great has their proliferation become in recent years, but The Irish Food Writers’ Guild Community Food Awards remain exceptional and above criticism in his eyes. 

TV celebrity chef Martin Shanahan landed a large haul of profits in 2014, as accumulated profits at his Kinsale Fishy Fishy restaurant jumped to over €1.22m.

With the feast of fun kicking off in Stradbally today, Ed Power goes behind the scenes with three of the organisers

Sharon Ní Chonchúir says seaweed is one of the most nutritious foodstuffs on the planet and we need to protect this important natural resource

It’s been a tourist secret for decades, but it’s time Carlingford got its place in the sun, writes Tony-Clayton Lea.

YOU would never think that in the space above the rather beautifully appointed Kilkenny Design Centre is a restaurant that has quite likely one of the longest floor plans in Ireland (it was, centuries ago, a series of grain stores for horses belonging to the Earl of Ormonde, which accounts for the length of the building).

The Connemara Mussel Festival (May 1-3) picked up one hell of an accolade last year.

The Foodie Forum incorporating the Gastronomy West Symposium (Tuesday, February 3) at GMIT, in Galway, may be just three years old but already comports itself with a swagger befitting its rapidly-growing status as one of the country’s premier food events.

A Cork hotel has been named one of the world’s best, according to travel magazine Condé Nast Traveller.

SMOKED salmon is the easy part of Christmas. Throw it on brown bread, with lemon and black pepper, and the innocents will think it’s posh and that you’ve spent a lot. 

Just weeks ago, The Menu remedied a grave ill of his own contrivance and returned to Belfast after an absence of two decades and more. 

The founder of an Irish charity which rescues street kids in Nepal has praised the children of West Cork for helping him save countless lives.

Time once more for A Taste of West Cork Food Festival (September 5 to 14), celebrating the produce and food culture of The Menu’s spiritual hinterland of West Cork, kicking off with a Taste of West Cork Gala Dinner at the Inchydoney Island Lodge and& Spa. 

While a rather piqued Mrs Menu has, betimes, decided the best place for The Menu’s exquisitely plated edible creations is languishing on the wall just behind his head...

SEAWEED conjures up stories of a good day at the beach ruined by an encounter with slimy, smelly sea vegetation.

While The Menu remains forever enraptured by our glorious West coast, he knows full well that man does not live on scenery alone...

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

OUR guest speaker at a recent Slow Food event was Sally McKenna, author of Extreme Greens, a book about the magic of seaweed.

Chef’s Table, Chapter One,

While vegetarian curry may not be the most traditional of native nosh, The Menu shall nonetheless join the anticipated 5,000 diners on Cork’s Grand Parade at Feed The City (March 15), one strand of the city’s St Patrick’s Festival weekend.(www.corkstpatricksfestival.ie)

Casual restaurants which exhibit flair and creativity have been the most notable innovation of Irish restaurant culture over the last 12 months, according to food writer John McKenna.

The Menu is forever harping on about the multiple benefits of freshly grown, seasonal, local produce and is a huge fan of the inspirational Michael Kelly’s GIY organisation, so is delighted to bring tidings of the GIY Get Ireland Growing Fund.

WALK into any restaurant these days and you’re frequently confronted by a wall covered with plaques and framed certificates, telling you how great the restaurant is. What do they all mean, if anything?

Weekend food columnist Joe McNamee highlights the best Irish produce each week in The Menu.

The people and events that shaped events in a West Cork harbour town are remembered in a book published this week.

SALLY MCKENNA has just published a book that really needed to be written, it’s called Extreme Greens and it’s all about seaweed and sea vegetables, how to find them, how to identify, how to harvest sustainably, how to cook, how to preserve, it’s great.

After nearly a year of ‘Gatherings’ up, down, and around the country, it’s hard to believe the original Gathering is only a week away.

By Declan Burke, Pól Ó Conghaile, Richard Fitzpatrick, Ed Power, Marc O’Sullivan, Anne Marie O’Connor and Des O’Driscoll

Launch of Ireland’s first ‘edible’ Économusée

Vintage rally to launch new cider

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.

As The Menu is wont to say, ‘time flies when you’re having food’ and 52 columns later, The Menu today celebrates its first anniversary. And, as it all began last year with Dungarvan and the West Waterford Festival of Food, it seems entirely appropriate to kick off this most auspicious day with further tidings of a town and festival most dear to The Menu’s heart.

Musashi, 15 Capel Street, Dublin 1; 01 532-8068; musashidublin.com Michie, 11 Chelmsford Lane, Ranelagh; 01 497-6438; michiesushi.com

Frank Hederman’s Belvelly smokehouse is also a hard-working, food- producing and tasty family home. Tommy Barker goes to visit

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

Pichet15, Trinity Street, Dublin; 01-6771060; pichetrestaurant.ie

IT’S RAINING, ‘pull-over-it’s-too-dangerous-to-drive’ rain. Hardly ideal conditions for roaming the forest and hills around Kinnitty Castle Hotel, Co Offaly, foraging for mushrooms.

SKIBBEREEN is gearing up for the 10,000 people expected to attend its colourful annual food festival, which will feature everything from a “Celtic Cook-off” to seaweed cookery demonstrations, farmers’ markets, craft fairs and tastings.

BORD Bia believes it is getting closer to being able to roll out Food Brand Ireland, the highly anticipated umbrella brand to promote Irish agrifood exports.

NEWS of top-drawer National Organic Week events is coming in thick and fast.

IRISH farmers are slaves to the multinational supermarkets and the Government has ceded control of the country’s agriculture, food writer John McKenna has claimed.