Feed your tourists well, they have feelings too

Rome is a magical city and as food goes, it has some of the best in the world. After spending a few days there last week, I pretty much ate my way through the city, with the highlights being polpo con salsa (pictured left),
Saltinbocca (veal and bacon) and swordfish carpaccio which are Roman specialities.

Like most heavily-touristed cities, most of the food around the busy areas like Piazza Navona, the Spanish Steps etc is pretty rubbish. A lot of the dishes are microwaved or re-heated from earlier servings. One reason for this is that restaurants pay extortionate rents to be in tourist areas. So to make it work financially, they serve the cheapest ingredients possible with plenty of cut price techniques. Staff are usually unskilled and you wouldn't want to look too closely at their kitchens.

Roman restaurant law is also pretty hard on businesses. You have to

pay two months wages in June and December, and another months worth into social security. At the fabulous Fortunata de Pantheon (pictured right and below) the owner explained how rents were killing Roman food and that it was hard to find good value in the city that wasn't "caca". Fortunata is one of Rome's best loved restaurants, and it's walls are adorned with photos of it's favorite customers - Helmut Kohl, Ronald Reagan et al.. He also made the point that only massive ,attention to detail kept their business as popular as it is, despite opening its doors decades ago. When the family opened five franchises around the city they eventually sold them off, as it became clear that they couldn't deliver the same level of quality served in their main restaurant. As the food wasn't the best it could be, they didn't want their name over the door, so they got out. Take heed Gordon Ramsay et al... getting bigger is often the kiss of death in the restaurant business.

One lovely thing about Rome is the value for money in food. At Fortunata de Pantheon most of the mains were between 10 and 20 euro, and the food was breathtaking; everything had huge flavour and the ingredients just screamed freshness and quality, from the ricotta stuffed zuchini flowers to clams that tasted of the sea in the spaghetti vongole. Ristorante di Tirambo on Piazza della Cancelleria was another great recommendation. I had a tartare of Piedmontese beef with black truffle and sheeps cheese. A carpaccio of vegetables with shrimp was also beautifully balanced, very simple but super tasting. Again this was a great value place with food which you simply don't get the chance to taste in Ireland. It's also gorgeous to sit outdoors in the fading evening sun and to be in a city that is one of the most beautiful in the world.

Everyone should go to Rome at some stage in their life, and if you haven't been, it's a fantastic destination for those who like their grub. But stay away from eating on the main tourist squares and anywhere with a waiter wandering outside trying to get you in the door. You'll leave significantly lighter in pocket and could have an eventful holiday spent largely in the confines of your bathroom.

And it's a trend seen in most cities. Food designed for tourists is often pretty awful, you only have to think of Temple Bar to see this is also the case in Ireland. With a few exceptions, we tend to think that tourists don't notice bad food, but it's a costly mistake. Tourists who eat well are more likely to remember their trip fondly and recommend the destination, and the restaurant to others. So the lesson is, feed your tourists well, after all, they have feelings too.

Chocolate rabbits, fine food... Say hello to the awards season

There's very few people able to coerce the premier of any country into auctioning a chocolate rabbit but if anyone's up for the job, it's Margaret Jefferes. Margaret is founder of Good Food Ireland - a tourism and food organisation which brings together the best of Ireland's food producers, restaurants, cafes and accomodation. In my work I come across members of Good Food Ireland all the time and it's testament to Margaret that she has gathered those at the top of their game into her organisation. The sublime Merrion Hotel, Cliff House Hotel, Chapter One and food producers like Graham Roberts of Connemara Smokehouse, Glenillen Farm and Cashel Blue cheese are all members of the group. These are people and companies who I've covered in stories because they are doing something different and authentic in food. And when I travel around the country to interview farmers and food producers I always find the Good Food Ireland folk a fantastic, energetic and fun bunch of people. The minute I get out of my car they're there with a warm welcome, an honesty and humour that always makes me really warm to them. Maybe it's because they gain strength from each other in what can be a lonely business - running a food SME in a recession. But whatever the reason, they have huge passion for what they do, and I always end up chatting for hours and more importantly, laughing, a lot.

Earlier this week they held their annual conference and awards in the Shelbourne Hotel Dublin. It was an honour to asked to speak at the conference alongside the likes of Kevin O'Sullivan editor of the Irish Times, Feargal Quinn retail legend, Fred Karlsson Founder of DoneDeal.ie, and Mary Carney winner of MasterChef Ireland. Mary spoke about "Creating Great Taste Memories" and the good and bad memories we all have of Irish food which brought me back to the terrible days of the 1980s microwave lasangne but also my Donegal grandmothers insanely good soda bread. The lunchtime spread of foods from Good Food Ireland was so fantastic it was hard to take in. I think I had about fourteen separate things on my plate at one stage, everything packed with flavour, beautifully cooked and as Irish as it comes. Some of the highlights from the conference talks on the day were from Sile Gorman, Aran McMahon and Peter Ward from Country Choice who all spoke about how difficult it is to make money out of producing or serving good food, but that what keeps them going is the love affair they have with food, and the feedback they get from their customers who come back again and again.

The awards ceremony was later in the evening and it was lovely to see some great Irish businesses like Goatsbridge Trout farm, The Chocolate Garden and Ballyvolane House collect some well deserved silverware. But for me it was a race over to Trinity College for my second appointment of the day - the Bord Bia Food Industry Awards, and yes, I finished the evening pretty well fed. The Bord Bia awards were slightly different as they are aimed at larger food businesses. Huge Irish success stories like Largo crisps won awards alongside Flavahans porridge (a staple in our home), Country Crest, Green Saffron, Jameson Whiskey and a new collaboration between Kerrygold and Cashel Blue which will see the Grubb family's handmade cheese on shelves in the mega marketplace that is the USA. It's fantastic to see this kind of innovation taking place as our big brand leaders like Kerrygold could do a lot to give smaller businesses a leg up in markets where they already have a foothold. And now more then ever, when our food exports are so important in keeping jobs in Ireland is the time to exploit this further. Here's a shaky photo of Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney speaking at the event; bigging up the export performance of Irish food which is set to hit 9 billion euros by the close of the year. Just so you know, the Bord Bia dinner was St. Tola's Cheese, roast Irish pork and a berry crumble to finish. As usual with Bord Bia's events, it was beautifully done and a really lovely evening. For me it was also a chance to catch up on the gossip with other farming and food journalists and we had a lively night with lots of laughs. Particularly pleasing to me was seeing the "journalist writing tomorrows piece on back of napkin" approach is live and well, as a quick scan around the media table revealed. Having no napkin to hand, my own scribbled notes were made on the back of my speech from earlier in the day. We're nothing but enterprising, us lot.