Total eclipse on a fork... high drama at Cork food festival
Treasa Dempsey, Douglas, Margaret Nagle, Glanmire, Deirdre Buckley, Douglas, and Siobhán Ó Nualláin, Tralee, wearing eclipse glasses at the VQ table at the opening night of the Cork on a Fork Festival. Picture: Darragh Kane
After last year’s rain showers, which saw the VQ Long Table Dinner moved indoors, Mother Nature more than repaid her debt to Cork on a Fork food festival with the high drama of an almost total solar eclipse.
It began as diners took their seats for the festival’s flagship al fresco dining event running along the entire length of MacCurtain St.
And, with the next eclipse not due until 2090, it was very hard to avoid a sneaky peak upwards even without the correct safety-viewing glasses.
Although in the heel of the hunt, it was more a brief and romantic dimming of the lights rather than a full-blown blackout — anyway, the extraordinary food offering served up on the plate was already doing one hell of a job to divert attention and bring gazes firmly back to Earth.
Beginning with a drinks reception at the east end of the street, the nearly 500 guests then took their seats for a magnificent collaborative meal cooked by 24 chefs from the many Victorian Quarter hospitality businesses.
Too many chefs most definitely did not spoil the broth, or anything else for that matter, and a crack team of 41 wait staff then made seemingly light work of serving up the multiple courses and keeping every single one of the 500 glasses topped up.
Beginning with snacks including Hegarty Cheddar, kohlrabi and chilli croquette, Clonakilty black pudding roll, and West Cork mussel blini, the menu was an homage to the superb producers of Cork, with vegetarian and gluten-free menus also available on a pre-booked basis.
Starters included West Cork razor clam, crab and lobster escabeche, Cork Rooftop Farm’s heritage tomatoes, and Gubbeen Smokehouse cured meats, while Skeaghanore duck from West Cork was the crowning glory main course, pressed confit duck served with new season onions, caramelised pear, and with sides including Kilbrack Farm summer greens and smoked new season potatoes.
The dinner concluded with a gorgeous dessert: Maharani Gin ‘baba’, with West Cork strawberries, fig leaf crèmeux, figs and streusel.
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Businesses involved in staging the event included The Metropole, The Glass Curtain, Greene's, Paladar, The Dean, Isaacs Restaurant, Thompsons, Da Mirco, The Address, Gabriel House, Son of a Bun, Moxy, and The Shelbourne Bar, with sponsorship and support coming from Cork City Council, Birra Moretti, TS Events, PepsiCo, SuperValu, and Clonakilty Blackpudding.
Cork City Council chief executive Valerie O’Sullivan said: "From a personal point of view, this has been such a wonderful evening. But wearing my professional hat, it makes me so proud on behalf of Cork City Council to deliver Cork in a Fork Food Festival, as it shows Ireland and the wider world that Cork really is the food capital of Ireland."
Tourism Ireland CEO Alice Mansergh, also in attendance, said: "Seven out of 10 people considering a visit to Ireland say that food is an important part of their destination choice, and culinary tourism is becoming more and more important.
"Such a special and unique event like this, and the Cork and a Fork Festival in general, really helps to frame awareness of the diversity and quality of our food offering in Cork and Ireland."
As the event came to a conclusion, the temporary infrastructure, tables and chairs were all dismantled and removed in the blink of an eye.
However, many diners simply stood up and took the party to pavements outside the multiple pubs and bars running along either side of the street for a post-prandial digestif or three — after all, any attendees waking up this morning with a sore head could always blame it on the eclipse.
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