Kay Harte of Farmgate Café with Colman Andrews (Author and Food Critic) and Maurice Keller, Arlington Lodge, Waterford, at the Cork launch of The Country Cooking of Ireland
Farmgate Café was delighted to host New York author Colman Andrews to launch his latest book - The Country Cooking of Ireland - on the 12th of March at the English Market, Cork. Published by Chronicle Books in the US, and featuring stunning photographs by Christopher Hirsheimer, this wonderful book contains a wealth of knowledge relating to Irish food from traditional Irish recipes such as Colcannon and Black Pudding with Cabbage & Apples to Mealie Greachie (Toasted Oatmeal), to fascinating vignettes on topics such as traditional methods for preserving eggs (including Cork's buttered eggs) to a compelling and lively compendium on local 'food heroes' from around the island of Ireland - including Cork's English Market and Kay Harte at Farmgate Café.
This is a really interesting and beautifully written book, on sale at Liam O'Ruiseal's on Oliver Plunkett Street, Cork, amongst other good book shops around Ireland.
Pictured at the launch...
Brian Hayes, Hayes Bar Glandore with Elke O'Mahoney, Dine & Wine Club, Cork, Dianne Curtin, food writer, and Ned Murphy of Nathan's Accountants Cork
Jacque and Eithne Barry of Jacque's Restaurant, Cork
Liz Kirwin & William Wall, Poet
Steve Dwyer and Susie O'Connor of Classic Drinks, Cork, with Tom Durcan of Durcan Meats at the English Market
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An Excerpt from Country Cooking of Ireland
There is a sense in which all Irish cooking--at least the good stuff, the real thing--is country cooking. It is almost inevitably straightforward, homey fare, that is, based on first-rate raw materials whose identity shines through. Even in sophisticated urban restaurants, it tends to have an underlying earthiness and solidity that suggest honesty and respect for rural tradition. This is not surprising, since no other nation in Western Europe--not even Italy or Spain--remains as intimately and pervasively connected to the land as Ireland does. Almost any Irishman or Irishwoman you meet, including those Armani-suited business tycoons and Diesel-clad club kids you'll meet in Dublin or Belfast, will admit to some personal association with a farm: grew up on one, spent childhood summers on one, has a brother or an aunt or a good friend who owns one. At the very least, Grandma kept a cow for milk or Grandpa had a small potato patch or both. (The president of Ireland herself, Mary McAleese, maintains a vegetable garden and a chicken coop on the grounds of the Áras an Uachtaráin, the Irish White House.) Whether the average citizen realizes it or not, this close connection to the soil is one of the island's greatest cultural strengths, and it helps give great promise to the future of Irish cuisine.
..All over Ireland, from the artisanal ateliers of West Cork to the lush market gardens of County Wicklow to bustling Galway and burgeoning County Antrim and stark but friendly County Donegal, a new culinary world is taking shape: Rural entrepreneurs are bucking food-unfriendly regulators to build little businesses around small-scale food production and distribution; established restaurants are revising their menus to take better advantage of the native bounty, while new ones are opening with a sense of Irish-based imagination and adventure; and scholars and lay writers are delving seriously into the lore and history of Irish cooking and eating, encouraging producers and chefs alike. Forget the jokes (remember how we used to laugh about quality of English cooking, before we dubbed London one of the best restaurant cities on earth?): Ireland has the potential to become, in the very near future, one of the most compelling gastronomic destinations in Europeand it's already a darned good place to eat.
Excerpted from The Country Cooking of Ireland, published by Chronicle Books.
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