Food fashionistas go green with local produce

FOOD fashionistas are going green – eating locally grown food and reducing their carbon footprint, Ireland’s leading food critic has claimed.

“It is definitely not fashionable to fly in food from far-flung places, any more,” said John McKenna, who launched 2010 Bridgestone 100 Best Restaurants Guide yesterday.

When the guide was launched 21 years ago anything that came from abroad, particularly France, was perceived as being good, he said. “Nowadays keeping your food miles short and finding what’s on your doorstep is how the best places are really separating themselves from the rest. We now have confidence in our own produce – that’s the biggest change. We used to think that if it was foreign, it was better. But, actually, we can do anything in food as well as the best, no matter where they are coming from,” he said.

Mr McKenna said the Bridgestone 100 Best Places to Stay, in particular, showed that people in the hospitality sector wanted to produce as much food as they could themselves with the remainder coming from people in their locality.

“As well as saving the planet people are being given food that is nutritionally better than anything that is flown in from somewhere thousands of miles away,” he said.

The guide also has controversial chef, Conrad Gallagher, making a return to the guide after a 10-year absence with his restaurant, Salon Des Saveurs in Aungier Street, Dublin.

Despite the uncool design and hectic service, there were no doubts about the celebrity chef’s cooking, according to the guide. The meal was an unmitigated success, it concluded.

“Conrad Gallagher knows he has to earn his stripes all over again in Dublin and is committed to doing that,” it points out.

Longford also gets its first entry in the 100 Best Restaurants and the 100 Best Places to stay because of Viewmount House – a magnificent Georgian House once owned by the Earl of Longford.

“Viewmount House is a really good place to visit – excellent owners, a wonderful chef, Gary O’Hanlon, who is originally from Donegal and really high standards,” said Mr McKenna.

He said he would like every county to be represented in the guide but, surprisingly, places such as Wexford and Galway, were quite weak in terms of the quality of restaurants.

“Galway, to me, is always a mystery. Galway should have 10 restaurants in that book and it doesn’t.”

Mr McKenna also wondered why more medium-priced restaurants did not copy the Avoca Cafe in Kilmacanogue, Co Wicklow.

“They show how you can do mid-market food extremely well and for a large number of people as well. It is so well-thought-out and the food is cooked from scratch.”

And, he said, amazingly, the good restaurants did not seem to be struggling because of the economic downturn.

“The people in difficulty are those who over-extended themselves but, by and large, while the average spend is down, people are still going out to eat.”