West Cork chef plans unique pit roast

It’s a far cry from stainless steel and hi-tech kitchen gadgetry. One West Cork restaurant chef is to dig a large pit, line it with stone, build a blazing bonfire and cook a bullock.

The unique pit roast, in which half a Black Angus bullock will be butchered, wrapped in damp hessian, and roasted for up to 15 hours underground in a 2m-deep hole lined with stone slabs and covered by clay, is the centrepiece of a new festival.

Later this month, the first ever West Cork Angus Beef Festival will be celebrated in Bandon, and the pit roast — an underground cooking method whose roots stretch back to the Bronze Age — will be the centrepiece.