Award-winning blog of Irish food writer and broadcaster Caroline Hennessy.
So, we didn’t win last night – but, as my producer said, that doesn’t mean that we aren’t great! An Australian show – The Main Ingredient: New Years Day which was presented by Kelli Brett and produced by ABC Radio – took the award for Best Food/Drink Radio Programme.
Today’s the day when the results of the 2010 World Food Media Awards will be announced in Adelaide. Fingers crossed for Foodtalk: Spices and the other Irish nominees.
Don’t forget – Dine In Cork Restaurant Week starts today, Friday 30 April, and runs until next Saturday, 8 May. A total of 25 restaurants in and around Cork, including Bibliocook favourites Star Anise, Liberty Grill, Fenn’s Quay, Jacques (all in Cork city) and Over the Moon in Skibbereen are offering a three course dinner, plus tea or coffee, for just €25. You’ll find more details, including menus, here. Book early, book often!
After I recovered from the excitement of the Foodtalk: Spices nomination in the Best Food/Drink Radio Programme for this year’s Le Cordon Bleu World Food Media Awards – it’s taken a while! – I found a few fellow Irish nominees on the list.
There was big excitement at the cottage when I learned that Spices, one of the Foodtalk documentaries that I presented for Newstalk, is a nominee for the 2010 Le Cordon Bleu World Food Media Awards! These awards celebrate the very best in international food publishing and broadcasting. With a total of 700 entries across 21 categories, now whittled down to 181 nominations, it is a true honour to make it this far. Spices is nominated in the best food/drink radio programme category alongside six other programmes from Australia and America.
There was sunshine and crowds at the Mallow Food Festival on Easter Sunday morning, the street thronged with people wandering at the early event before heading home for Easter lunch. I abandoned the Husband and Little Missy at home for a quick zoom in and out as we were heading down to Gort na Nain Guesthouse that afternoon, with a side trip to Cork so the Husband could peruse the offerings at the Franciscan Well Easter Beer Fest.
The Mallow Food Festival has taken a move this year and will be taking place in the town on Sunday morning as part of Racing Home for Easter. We’ve had a great time at the festival for the last two years (despite last year’s torrential rain!) so will be heading there bright and early, trying not to spoil our appetite for Easter lunch. More information below.10am – 1.30pm: Food & Craft Fair in Mallow Town: a showcase of Munster’s best produce and crafts with children’s entertainment including Stilt Walkers/Clowns, Lungi the Travelling Puppeteer, the Hakuna Matata Aerobic Performers and the fabulous Mobile Farm. Contact Claire Ryan on 022 53257 or Roisin Lucey on 087 0554382 for more info.Also on our list of things to do this Easter Sunday is the Beerfest at the Franciscan Well Brewery in Cork City. Alongside their own Shandon Stout and Rebel Red, they will be featuring craft beers from ten microbreweries around of Ireland. As far as I know, it starts at 2pm but, frustratingly, the Franciscan Well website hasn’t been updated with event details. Still, I’m sure a lot of the Husband‘s fellow homebrewers will make it along!
In 2006 I wrote an article in reaction to the announcement that US magazine Saveur was about to publish a piece on Ireland as a foodie destination, wondering just what these “mythical gastrotourists” would find if they ventured off the beaten track. The quotes from that piece used in Saturday’s Irish Times Magazine article on Colman Andrews’ The Country Cooking of Ireland made me revisit it and wonder about what’s changed.
