Would you like fries with that? We're being codded, again.

A year on from when I first wrote about the fish labelling scandal going on in Ireland it seems nothing has changed. In the second survey into what exactly we are buying when we purchase "cod", the Food Safety Authority of Ireland has revealed that nearly one in five fish are not what it says on the label. So what are the implications for consumers and does this point to murky goings on in the fish trade?

This most recent survey was carried out in retail outlets, fish shops, hotels, pubs, restaurants and takeaways all over Ireland. The FSAI found that 19% of products it sampled were labelled incorrectly. The largest sector selling us fake cod was takeaways, with 32% of takeaways found to have mislabelled fish produce on sale.

Do takeaways rely on people being either (a) drunk and on their way home from the pub when they buy their "cod" and chips, or (b) their product being so doused in salt and vinegar that your box of fish and chips could be in fact battered Nike trainer with deep fried turnip peelings?

The point is that this isn't so much a food safety issue but common or garden food swindling, based on making money from innocent consumers. Cod is generally an expensive fish and in this case it’s being replaced with other varieties, and food businesses are increasing their own profit margins by selling fake produce.

This survey was undertaken last autumn when cod stocks are traditionally low and found that fish such as pollack, coley or smelt were being sold as cod. At that time cod was about 11 euros a kilo; pollack about 6 or 7 euro a kilo so you stand to make a lot of money if you can replace one with the other.

Okay, so a bit of coley posing as cod won't kill us. However, in terms of food safety, food substitution in the past has had fatal consequences. In North America two people died from eating puffer fish that had been labelled and sold as monkfish; a pretty terrifying outcome. As consumers, we need to have confidence in what it says on the label. Particularly in the EU, we are under the impression that strict policies on labelling and traceability are in place. Instead, what this study reveals is a level of disfunction in the labelling of seafood in Europe.

What’s shocking about this is not the first time that mislabelling of fish has found to be an issue in Ireland. About 12 months ago when I first wrote on the subject UCD did a study on fish and found much the same problem. A quarter of the fish they examined was mislabelled. In one major supermarket chain, seven out of their 16 "cod" products weren't cod. The research calculated that by selling cheaper alternatives, this retailer could be getting inflated profits of between €400,000 to €550,000 per year on Irish cod sales.

So who is doing the duping – is it the supermarkets, the fish and chip shops or is it the fish dealers who are selling them the fish? The FSAI can’t name and shame the outlets or merchants involved in this sting so to speak. They found that some of the mislabelling may be due to a certain amount of ignorance, but a few names popped up in the retail and wholesale side where several instances occurred, especially in the battered and smoked fish. They’re being investigated as this would suggest that it was more than accidental.

Unfortunately the penalities are low even if charges are brought and while you can name and shame an outlet for food safety breaches, mislabelling food comes under “misleading the consumer” which hasn’t huge penalities – most will get a verbal warning, then if they persist be taken to court.

Not very heartening for the consumer is it? Will it take a serious health incident arising from food mislabelling to change the law? Why can't we find out who the worst operators are and therefore make our own choice as consumers to stop being codded at the fish counter? If you want to hear more on this topic I'll soon upload my interview on RTE radio with Pat Kenny teasing through the issue. And no, there won't be any bad jokes, I promise.

In part two of this post, I'll be examining the sometimes hideous, sometimes hysterically funny history of food substitution and I'll have some tips for how to buy Irish fish, that's the genuine article. We've so much great fish in Ireland it's ridiculous that we're buying not only fake product but fake product that's mostly coming from outside the EU. But that's a whole other story... part two coming soon.

New garden, new start

In between lots of food writing and talking last week I managed to get out to the garden and plant some spring veg - a refreshing change to the chicken wars which were continuing apace. Late last year we moved to a new house with a large garden, in fact it's not really a garden but a job centre. The minute we arrived, my husband and I walked around it stupefied with fear - having moved here precisely because we wanted a small piece of land of our own, once we were in possession of it things just began to look plain scary.

The list of jobs to be done; lawns to be mown, hedges to be cut, trees to be felled, felled trees to be chopped is pretty overwhelming. And while it had been beautifully maintained by the previous owners, the place doesn't feel like the garden we want it be and big plans are afoot to change how much of it is orientated.

Being animal lovers, more living, destructive additions are set to arrive in the next few months but in the meantime we are just trying to maintain the garden; chop down a few small trees to get a nicer view of the valley we live in, cut hedges and start on the lawns. While a lot of the planting is very suburban and 1970s in flavour, there are some lovely places in the garden, including the potting shed (pictured above) which is a lovely place to work, with old-fashioned panes of glass covered in clematis to one side and a lovely pink camellia climbing all over the front wall and door.

If you follow this blog from last year you will be familiar with the travails of planting too many tomatoes so this year I stuck to just Ferlines - -a nice large ridged tomato like the ones in French outdoor markets, which have been successful for us in the past, and a few of a mini variety.

I also put in lots of rocket, dill, basil, radishes and three types of lettuce. We will plant more in a fortnight's time so that you get a successive crop rather than everything coming at the same time -yet more lessons learned from previous efforts.

For someone who spends a lot of their day looking at a laptop, it's lovely to be outside again and pottering around in the dirt. Gardening in a new place and planting from seeds is always slow at the start but once your veg begins to come up it is such a pleasure to walk around the garden in the evening, see how everything is getting on and have a glass of wine and chat as the sun sets. I have one terrace I'm trying to remodel as a place to eat in the evenings which has beautiful views. At the moment it's a grey concrete hell but I've high hopes for its transformation into a cool but lush space for eating and entertaining. I've done this before - the first garden I had was truly awful - a tiny concreted yard the size of a stamp but after years of work it became something really lovely, with hanging vines, lanterns, dark wooden floors and verdant planting. So in a way this garden is going to benefit from the experiences that have gone before, or fingers crossed, let's hope it will.

It's funny, I am more patient about gardens then most other things in my life. I'm prepared to put in enormous hard work, constantly forgive them, plan and reinvest when things go wrong and ultimately learn from my mistakes. If I could bring these qualities into everything I do, I'd be some kind of cross between Michael O'Leary and the Dalai Lama. I'll keep the blog up to date with regular reports and photos and include the food I grow into my cooking this summer. For everyone out there fond of gardens, or perhaps who doesn't know where to start - buy a few seeds, a bag of compost, a small tray and stick them in the ground. See what happens. Get stuck in now folks, dirt rocks. x

Irish chicken, the end of the road?

Last week it was lambs.. now it's chicken. On Tuesday the Irish Times published the investigative piece I wrote on Irish chicken which has certainly excited some debate about what we're eating - debate being the polite word. I suppose strong reaction to any piece of journalism is what you want, and it's good to see that people are engaged with the issue and in some cases, simply frightened about what they're eating. I've had email comments sent on to me from the Times and a few strange phonecalls since the piece came out. One chap who called me this morning had a good old rant but I'm sure it's nothing a bucket of chicken at KFC can't sort out. After all, food and countryside issues often excite slightly over the top reactions. After directing an episode of Ear to the Ground (Ireland's farming programme) on fox hunting some years ago, I was delighted to find I was banned from the entire area of East Galway by the pro hunting lobby while at the same time an animal rights protestor chained himself to the gates of Leinster House. Have a look at the piece and see for yourself. http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/features/2011/0329/1224293291679.html I'm off to write my presentation for a food event "For Food's Sake" tonight at The Sugar Club in Dublin. Really looking forward to it - myself, a representative from Bord Bia and the IFA will be presenting ideas and then responding to audience discussion on the future of food and farming. And there'll be artisan foods to sample afterwards... better leave some room in the tummy, though there's not a lot of room in there with an eight month old baby taking up most of the space... Tally ho x

How to survive a bullying on twitter - I blame the lambs

In my innocence I thought that most people knew that meat came from an animal. That it is born from a mummy animal, grows up, eats grass and is killed before it arrives on our plate as food. I guess not.

Last week I tweeted that seeing the newborn lambs in the fields around my house made me think of Spring lamb, which in turn sent me into the greenhouse to start watering my mint plants. Now this may be the behaviour of a rampant animal hater but hey, I simply like eating lamb.

Anyway, a while later someone responded to my tweet saying that I was a "sick and pathetic" individual. This sent me into paroxysms of excitement as obviously I had committed some truly awful deed in the league of Hannibal Lector. When I realised it was related to the lamb comment I (a) spent a long time laughing and (b) watched the twitter responses to the lamb issue get completely out of control and result in a lot of people taking deep offence.

The fact of the matter is that if we choose to eat meat we cannot ignore the facts of how that meat is raised and killed. And if we are grown up about it, we have to realise that burying your head in the sand doesn't change how animals are farmed and slaughtered. Farming is how food is produced and in terms of my daily life I live pretty close to the realities of it. Our house is sandwiched between two sheep farms which are currently midway in lambing a thousand lambs. Yes, a thousand. Some will be killed at twelve weeks old and sold as "spring lamb" - very young tender meat. Others will be killed at any stage up to about one year old, the rest will become replacement ewes (mothers themselves) and some quality males become breeding rams.

This is what happens to lambs. The way I reconcile eating lamb with the gorgeous little creatures gambolling around in the fields is that Irish sheep and lambs live as natural life as possible - outdoors, eating grass and in social herds. It is very different to the feedlot system often seen abroad where livestock live indoors, eat concentrate feed derived from maize and soya, with the biggest of these operations being essentially "factory farms".

Last year I bought a whole lamb killed at about 5 months old from Sweetbank Farm in Wicklow. (Some of it is pictured above) Their lamb is organic, grass fed and for me buying from farm gate from a farmer I know makes me feel what I'm eating is as ethically produced as possible. If I feel that certain meat is not produced with care towards animal welfare then I don't buy it, it's as simple as that.

I think we have to be real about food, know where it comes from and make a choice. It's interesting that if most consumers knew how their meat, especially imported chicken meat was produced they would probably not eat it. And as for twitter, you can follow my disgraceful views on food at @campbellsuz. I will atone, I promise.

www.sweetbankfarm.com

Talking, eating and swapping tales - For Foods Sake

In 2008 when myself and Philip started writing "Basketcase - What's happening to Ireland's Food" there were few places and gatherings that discussed the down and dirty aspects of what we eat. Agriculture was an unfashionable concept in Ireland; fields were for building houses in, not growing food. There was little crossover between the restaurant sector, farmers, artisan producers, mainstream agriculture, food manufacturing, food economists and of course, us, the consuming public.




Happily, three years later, we're in a very different place. People engage more with what's going into their shopping baskets and into their mouths, and it's not about food snobbery; but about wanting to know about where food is coming from, what it's doing to our health and the health of our economy. This change is mirrored in a new gathering designed for food enthusiasts who want to know more about food in Ireland; where it comes from; how it's farmed, how it's retailed, how it's served in restaurants and where the future lies for Irish food producers.


In a way it's ironic that it took the collapse of property developing in Ireland to reveal that one of the most solidly performing sectors of the economy was and still is, agriculture and food - currently earning us 8 billion euro in exports a year. In more chastened times we are returning to what we do very well - producing food - and examining it in much more detail. Forums like For Foods Sake have come out of this curiosity to know more, and put our money where our mouth is.

What were former separate channels of the sector have now become much more enmeshed. Restaurateurs source artisan produce, commercial pig producers talk about the dangers of having a future Ireland without pig farming due to international speculation on cereal prices. Some farmers are moving to organic or rare breed meat while new research shows that shoppers are buying more Irish products and know the value of what buying Irish means to the local economy. They are also more engaged with growing their own food, cooking from scratch and food knowledge, all of which is great news for Irish food producers and transmitting their message to consumers.



Many of these issues will be teased out at For Food’s Sake which is designed to be a bi-monthly evening of food discussion and tastings that will explore Irish food and its future possibilities. The first event will be held in Dublin's Sugar Club on Thursday 31 March. Aoife Carrigy, food journalist, blogger and and former deputy editor of Food & Wine Magazine, will be chairing the discussion. She is one of the brains behind the forum and is passionate about Irish food. All credit to her for bringing a great idea into reality and putting hard work and imagination into the project.


On the first evening of For Food's Sake I join a panel of speakers which includes the lovely Graham Roberts of Connemara Smokehouse; Irish Farmers’ Association’s Pat Smith, and Una Fitzgibbon who is Director of Marketing Services at Bord Bia. Here's the sort of issues under discussion on the first night -


What can we do to support sustainable growth of the Irish food industry, through consumer choices as well as policy decisions

Who are we producing Irish food for – for export or for home consumption – and what does this mean for how we produce it?

How heavily does Irish agriculture rely on subsidies, why and what happens if those subsidies disappear?

Can organic food production provide a realistic alternative model for Irish agriculture or is it by nature a niche market?

Does our indigenous fishing industry have a sustainable future, and do we care enough to demand that it does?

Happily, there will be food tastings on the night courtesy of several Irish artisan producers who will tell you about the wonderful products they make and let everybody check them out for themselves, and there will be a full bar so lots of chat and banter expected.

So put the date in your diary and as Aoife says - For Food’s Sake, come join us, and Eat! Drink! and Be Merry! We’ve a lot to be cheerful about. And much to discuss. Let’s get started. For more information, see facebook.com/ForFoodsSakeIreland and HolyMackerel.ie or contact Aoife Carrigy on 087 6100 826 or Aisling Rogerson on 087 961 4755, or email us on ForFoodsSakeIreland@gmail.com

Follow-up events will take place on the last Thursdays of May, July and every two months after that. Each evening will feature different artisan producer tastings, different topics and a different panel.

FOR FOOD’S SAKE – AN EVENING OF FOOD TALK AND TASTINGS
The Sugar Club, 8 Lower Leeson Street, D 2
Thursday 31 March
Doors 7.30pm
Adm €5 on the door

St. Patricks Day - Eat it

Happy Saint Patrick's Day Everyone! If there was ever an excuse to celebrate Irish food this is it; after all, we've reached a mature stage where we no longer colour beer green or squeeze ourselves into Leprechaun costumes. Or have we?

All around Ireland and further afield it's lovely to see lots of foodie events happening in conjunction with the one and only festival of Irishness. Great to see chefs like Catherine Fulvio (a Wicklow local like myself) travelling with the Irish delegation to Washington to promote Irish food. Chef Donal Skehan is joining Bord Bia at their events in Paris and in over in Texas, County Cork born foodie Rachel Gaffney is doing tv and radio spots throughout the period to celebrate Irish food and involve the huge Irish diaspora in the States in learning about traditional Irish foods and recipes.

All over the world, little bits of Ireland will be popping into people's mouths throughout St. Patrick's Day. I just hope they're decent examples of the wonderful products we produce here and not orange coloured cupcakes with acid green icing.

The first St. Patrick's Day food I experienced abroad was in Kitty O'Sheas pub in Paris when I was a student there. A friends parents who were visiting kindly took us there for lunch and pints of Guinness - rescuing us from a dietary dependence on pain au chocolat and cheap wine - our favourite was a rancid concoction bought for 6 francs in the bakery that turned your mouth instantly black. God love us, I think we thought the look was somewhere between Simone de Beauvoir and vampires.

It was during this momentous "hey we're eating real food" occasion at Kitty O'Sheas that I first tasted crubeens, or pigs trotters. My parents, who were solid farming folk had brought them home once or twice but I had always managed to run out the back door, fast. So ironically it was in Paris that I first ate one of the stalwarts of the Irish menu.

And so it is with national days of any kind; we can use them as a way to try something new and extend our dietary range which for everybody can get caught in a rut. It was at a recent Christmas market in Galway full of German traders that I had proper German Frankfurter (made and cooked authentically) for the first time in many years. It reminded me to include them in my shop now and again, and only for the fact that I've a freezer full of gorgeous free range pork still on the go I would be eating them more often.

As for us Irish at home - this short piece in the Examiner puts the case pretty simply (via Good Food Ireland) for using the occasion of St. Patrick's Day to remind us to buy Irish food. After all, our food exports are worth 8 billion euro a year, it is the one part of the economy that is really thriving and if all of us throw a few more Irish food items into our trolley every week it makes a real difference.

http://www.irishexaminer.com/business/consumers-urged-to-buy-local-food-to-preserve-jobs-and-livelihoods-148203.html#ixzz1GfBDU82J

Inishfood - good food, enthusiasm and one hell of a celebration

What started off as online chat about a few food bloggers heading up to Harry's Restaurant in Inishowen has turned into a Glastonbury of food; a mash-up of partying, eating, food skills and hanging out in one of the most beautiful parts of the country.

What began as essentially a get-together of a few food enthusiasts grew force as twitter and facebook suggestions came in about what could be added on to a night of dining in Donegal. 'Inishfood' became reality - a two night event with additional dining experiences, venues, accomodation, and workshops with food producers - a mini food festival.

As enthusiastic foodies, bloggers, and those in search of a bit of craic put plans into action, it grew even more legs. Information about the event began to feature in mainstream media. At this stage it seems half the country who are in anyway interested in food, write about food, produce food or in fact, eat it, are all heading up to Donegal this weekend. All credit to Donal Doherty from Harry's Restaurant in Inishowen, and food bloggers Caroline Hennessey from http://www.bibliocook.com/ and Kristin from the http://dinnerdujour.org/ for putting it all together, it really is testament to what enthusiasm, passion for food and simple collaboration can achieve.

What's particularly lovely about it is that unlike most festivals of any kind, it is not run by an entertainment company or money-making enterprise but a group of like-minded people who wanted to do something positive and celebrate what's great about rural Ireland and local food at a lacklustre point of the year.

Here's a run down of the programme -

Friday, 11 March; get-together at Linsfort Castle B&B

Darren Bradley is making pizzas in his wood-fired pizza oven (check out the photo sequence of the oven being built on Darren’s blog) and Donal Doherty will be providing food as well.

Seaneen and Collin from L. Mulligan. Grocer will also be conducting a beer tasting.

Rambling House storytelling and music will then take place

Saturday, 12 March is a busy, hands-on day - the fee for this day is €40, which will cover lunch and the Taste of Inishowen dinner (drinks will be extra). Donal will be donating €10 from this fee to iCARE, the local autism charity; any extra donations would be welcome.

9.45 Coffee Angel and Bailie’s Hand Roasted Coffee will demonstrate how to correctly brew coffee at home. Feel free to bring something to share with coffee.

10.30 Intro and welcome by Donal Doherty of Harry’s Bar & Restaurant and Caroline Hennessy and Kristin Jensen from the IFBA

10.45 – 12.00 Masterclass with butchers Ed Hick, TJ Crowe and Jack McCarthy making fresh black pudding – bring an apron! (hands-on participants for this will be limited)

12 – 12.45 Imen McDonnell will be demonstrating modern farmhouse butter making

12.45 – 1.15 A light lunch

1.15 – 1.45 David Tiernan will talk about how he started making his amazing Glebe Brethan cheese and will provide samples

1.45 – 3.00 Ed Hick, TJ Crowe and JackMcCarthy will show us how to cure pork (the Quality Mark pork has been kindly sponsored by Bord Bia!). Participants for this will be limited to 16 and you’ll need to bring a 2 litre container with a lid that you won’t need to use for 5 weeks while your pork cures in it!

3.00 – 4.00 Inishfood think tank and chat – an informal discussion on what we can do for Irish food to promote it and send a common message.

4.00 – 4.45 A visit to Harry’s new walled garden project and a talk with GIY Ireland about The Pledge. Gareth Austin, BBC Radio Horticulturist, will also be on hand with practical DIY help as part of GIY Week

5.00 – 7.00 Break for everyone to freshen up for dinner

7.00 A Taste of Inishowen feast at Harry’s, all made from local produce

9:00 Raffle of hampers and gift bags full of amazing Irish food as well as other prizes, with 100% of the proceeds going to the Barnardos charity. In addition, Georgina Campbell has generously donated a copy of her book, Ireland for Food Lovers, for everyone in attendance at Inishfood!

On Sunday, 13 March; a coastal walk at Malin Head, a boat ride around the Garvan Isles and a fresh seafood lunch.
An alternative is Donal Doherty's 1-hour shore walk on Lough Swilly, weather permitting, to take in the beautiful countryside around Inishowen.

If you like the sound of the above events but can't participate, book the date into your diaries for next year (do you hear that Donal, Caroline, Kristin?) or an even better idea is to enter the Inishfood charity raffle to win a plethora of great food prizes

There is a selection of prizes specifically for the non-attendees who donate via THIS LINK on the Barnardos website (please note that you must donate via this link only for your donation to be counted towards the raffle). Tickets are €5 each.

This online option is for the people who can’t make it to the event itself and delivery is limited to residents of Ireland (including Northern Ireland). Closer to the event, we’ll announce the prizes that will be raffled off in the three raffles, but they’ll be chosen from the list below.

It's a great scheme as the donors get to put their produce out in front of some of Ireland’s top foodies and food bloggers, Barnardos will get a donation towards their valuable work and some very lucky people will go home with some amazing prizes.

If you’re a food producer, cookbook publisher, restaurant or café or other food business and would like to donate something to be included in the raffle at what’s been described by the Bridgestone Guides as ‘THE foodie event of the year’, then email the organisers at

irishfoodbloggers@gmail.com for more details. You can follow events on twitter at #inishfood and all I can say is... Inishfood folks - please make it an annual event! Below is a list of the wonderful raffle prizes -

Bailies Handroasted Coffee – award-winning coffee
Burren Smokehouse – Irish Smoked Organic Salmon
Café Novo at the Westbury Hotel, Dublin – voucher for dinner for 2, including a bottle of wine of your choice
Carluccio’s - a signed copy of one of Antonio Carluccio’s cookbooks and chocolate truffles
Chocolate Here - a few bars of Gillian’s artisan chocolate
Country Choice – Peter Ward is parting with a magnum of Chateau Fontarache from his personal stash as well as a bottle of their own extra virgin olive oil
Dungarvan Brewing Company – craft beer
Dunhill Castle Sparkling Spirit – hand-blended fusion of Irish spirit (13% vol) and unfermented apples
Eilis Boyle – an apron from her forthcoming home wear range
Georgina Campbell - copies of her book, Ireland for Food Lovers
Glebe Brethan – award-winning cheese and David Tiernan’s renowned raw milk
Glenilen Farm – 2 hampers of their products (and congrats to them on winning Best Food & Drink award at the Small Firms Association National Small Business Awards 2011!)
Goastbridge Premium Irish Trout – smoked trout
Greenside Up Veg – a garden consultation or voucher for a workshop
Headland New Media – a week’s stay in Breasty Bay Cottage, the last home in Ireland
Inchhouse Black Pudding - traditional black pudding
J&G Seafoods – £50 voucher
James Whelan Butchers – a copy of An Irish Butcher Shop cookbook by Pat Whelan and a voucher for their shop
Kevin and France McGuinness – a bottle of Moët champagne
L. Mulligan. Grocer. – a €50 voucher
La Cucina – a three-course dinner for two, including a bottle of wine
Le Presbytère – dinner and one night’s free stay for 2 people at their B&B in Languedoc
Lynda McFarland (Athlone Nutrition Clinic) – nutrition wall charts
Mitchell & Son Wine Merchants – a bottle of Green Spot whiskey, cited in “100 Whiskies to Try Before You Die” by Ian Buxton
Mourne Seafood Bar – voucher for their new cookery school due to open this summer
Nutritious Nibbles – gourmet gluten-free cookies
Patchwork Veg – herb boxes
Pure Sushi – a voucher for a sushi platter
Red Nose Wine – a magnum of Anges Domaine des Red Archange 2007, an Irish-owned, Irish-made organic wine in Provence
Slated Ireland – handcrafted slate tableware
Tastefully Yours – gourmet artisan chutneys, relishes and pickles
The Bombay Pantry - 2 vouchers
The Bridgestone Guides – copies of their 100 Best books and Pizza Defined
The Cloister Restaurant and the Queens Hotel- dinner for two plus a cocktail & canape reception and one night’s accommodation in the Queens Hotel in Ennis
The Garden Kitchen Rowallane - their last jar (!) of chutney and jars of marmalade as well as a place at their baking workshop on 9 April
The Green Apron Artisan Preserve Company – artisan preserves
The Little Coffee House – a free gig where they will attend a party/event of the winner’s choosing and serve their selection of teas, coffees and hot chocolates for up to 200 guests
The Tannery – copies of their cookbook
TJ Crowe – organic ham, organic rashers and free-range sausages
Uluru Bistro – copies of the Cook for Ulster Yes Chef cookbook
Viewmount House - a tasting dinner for 2 people plus 1 night’s B&B accommodation
Williams’ Honey – jars of their two-time World Honey Cup winning honey, produced in Cahir, Co. Tipperary

Two day food tour prize from Good Food Ireland

This competition is so mouth wateringly good I couldn't resist posting it on the blog. Good Food Ireland is an organisation I've a lot of time for. It's the only all-island food and hospitality group that brings together restaurants, shops, hotels and food producers from all over the country that are committed to using local food. I've met many of their producers and they do exactly what's on the tin - make "real" food; authentic and Irish, mostly in rural locations from small, often family run businesses.


It's the antithesis of mass produced produce; the cheeses, hams, marmalades, organic lamb and range of goods made by these farmers and producers is exactly what keeps Ireland's food heritage alive. I try to include some of their food in my shop when I can as it is a link directly back to the farms and a way of supporting small Irish businesses. Plus it tastes great. A lot of their produce can be bought online at http://www.goodfoodireland.ie/ and you can also book hotels, restaurants and food tours there.

Food tourism is exactly the kind of thing I'm always banging on about - there's no reason why we should be doing more of in Ireland as we have the producers, eateries and venues already in place. It brings money into the rural economy where in turn it has a much greater multiplier effect than money spent on big brand tourism or indeed supermarkets. So great to hear about the food tour from Germany organised by Good Food Ireland taking in their hotels and food members ranging from Dublin to Cork. As a mini version of this, they are launching a competition - offering two people the chance to win a fabulous culinary weekend. Have a look -


Day 1:
· Arrive in Dublin and check into the fabulous 5-star Merrion Hotel located only a short walk from Graton Street and the main shopping district.
· Enjoy an overnight stay for two in a Superior King room overlooking The Merrion’s private Gardens..
· Begin your gourmet experience with lunch at the fantastic Nonna Valentina, owned by established restaurateur Eileen Dunne in The Italian Quarter on the banks of the River Liffey
· After lunch, owner Eileen Dunne will then take you on a walking tour to the famous Dunne & Crescenzi bakery in the financial sector (IFSC). Here you will be informed of how Irish food is incorporated into their Italian menus.
· Once this tour is over, take some time to explore all the historic wonders and cosmopolitan shopping Dublin has to offer.
· That evening, back in The Merrion Hotel you will indulge in a set three course dinner in the award-winning Cellar Restaurant with a specially chosen courtesy bottle of wine.

Day 2:
· Start your day with a tantalising Artisan Irish breakfast in the luxurious breakfast room at The Merrion Hotel.
· That afternoon you will travel out to the Dublin Cookery School in Blackrock. Housed in a stunning, state-of-the-art facility, you will enjoy a one day (hands-on) Contemporary Bistro-Style Cooking course (10am – 4pm). Dublin Cookery School is Dublin's top venue for cookery courses in the city and with the most experienced and professional team in the city, you know that you will be in good hands.
· After your lesson you will then sit down and enjoy this bistro feast with your fellow students and budding chefs in a friendly and relaxed atmosphere – the perfect end to a food lovers weekend.
· Head back into Dublin City and enjoy some retail therapy before heading home.

Check out the competitions website -
http://www.ireland.com/competitions/competition/win-a-good-food-ireland-culinary-weekend/597094

The answer to the competition question is on their facebook page -

http://www.facebook.com/goodfoodireland#!/pages/Good-Food-Ireland/119632236735

Behind the scenes at a five star - the g in Galway

It's funny that despite how messed up Ireland is at the moment, our food culture is punching way above its weight in a worldwide context. Among farmers, artisan producers, restaurants and hoteliers there is a strong awareness that not only is Irish food worth 8 billion in exports yearly but it is the one area bucking the recessionary trend.

I keep thinking that with the continuing drive of passionate chefs, producers and the food agencies, there is no reason why we can't make Ireland a food destination like Piedmont in Italy, where people visit here for not just hospitality and landscape but for food.

Last week I attended a food event in the g Hotel in Galway which illustrated this connection perfectly. The g is a five star hotel, but ten years ago in Ireland, five star hotels created bland menus that "ticked all boxes", with Italian food, trophy steaks, Caesar salads and mid-Atlantic staples that resembled a watery mix between Sheraton, Radisson and Celine Dion playing in the lobby. Sometimes a throwaway Irish dish to might make it onto the menu but far more important was the approach of trying to please too many people with descriptions and presentation of food while little thought was paid to where it came from.


Last week's event in the g proved that happily, things have come a long way. Their "g is for Gourmet" dinner mirrored their overall policy in sourcing as much food as possible from local producers - the lamb was from local farms, scallops and prawns from Gannets in Galway, salmon and beautiful smoked tuna from Graham and Saoirse Roberts' Connemara Smokehouse and cheese from Keane's Bluebell Falls herd of goats.


Executive chef Stefan Matz who heads up both the g and Ashford Castle made the point that it's no longer enough to talk about local food - "you have to practise what you preach and go and put it on the menu".

From the producers standpoint it's a win win situation - they see their food on top menus in Ireland which in turn sell it to an overseas audience. It is also wonderful to see a product like Bluebell Falls cheese transformed into three separate desserts; with three very different complex tastes - very technical cooking was in evidence but with a basic local foodstuff - it was a real eyeopener in what you can do with good simple quality produce.

The following day the g Hotel opened up their kitchens for a workshop with their chefs. Head chef Regis Heriaux took us through the cooking of a leg of lamb - opening up the leg to look at the four different types of meat within and what cooking suited them best. He pointed out how muscle closest to an animal's joint works the hardest and needs slow cooking, other parts of the leg had a lighter treatment. All were served up with turned local potatoes - he even showed us the correct technique for turning; leaving seven clearly visible sides on the vegetable.

I was fascinated by his tips from his years spent in top kitchens - "Buy good knives and use a diamond sharpener - I have the same knives for 24 years as a result, and don't let anyone else use them".

- "Touch produce that you want to eat, that's why supermarket's package everything - they don't want you to shop with your hands or sense of smell but with your eyes, which is not a way to learn which foods are fresh", and


- "Don't buy meat that is pinky red, it should be a darker purple red to show proper hanging time and give flavour".



Regis was entertaining, a great communicator and I expect to see him on television any day soon - any chef that says don't hold back on the butter is always pretty popular with an audience n'est pas? Being from Brittany he pointed out that olive oil is not synonymous with French cooking but with cooking of the South of France, in his neck of the woods it's pretty much butter all the way.


Shane Smith the pastry chef then took us through a basic Chocolate Ganache and a brownie base on which you can build any type of sweet item you fancy, he also threw some flames about and made a honeycomb from caramelised sugar, honey and liquid glucose, illustrating how it expands into a beast of a dish once the bread soda is added - literally spreading in size like "The Blob".


This was fascinating to watch as he made what looks very complicated, accessible in several easy parts. We were all given recipe sheets and explanations of the dishes and I would really recommend that if they offer more cookery courses at the g, foodie fans should definitely check them out.


It struck me that both the level of expertise, the recipes and experience they were communicating is a notch above what we're now accustomed to from wall to wall cookery programmes. I consider myself a half decent cook but rarely learn anything new so this was definitely a notch above the normal standard. I came away wanting to learn more and put what I'd just seen into practise.


I also left the g with a strong sense that Irish five stars are seeing what potential there is using local food as a USP. Customers aren't stupid, especially at this level they want an authentic experience not a bad Caprese salad with ingredients from six hundred miles away. They want food to tell a story and be regional, to have real people at the heart of it. Just like the producers who attended the event and provided the basics of what was on your plate, they want to sense a passion behind the dish, and to feel that it is "real food".

A big thanks to everyone at the g, I must credit their staff - they had great knowledge of the food and drink, the producers and the local area which is something lacking in many Irish hotels and restaurants. I cannot count the times I have asked "is the chicken/fish local?" and been told "I don't know." Customers want transparency, information, and enthusiasm. The staff in Galway had this in bounds and it felt like everyone was on the same page food-wise and in the way they wanted to present their hotel, their food and their region. Exactly as it should be.

I still eat from my garden, I swear....

This soup came from our garden. Em, from two leeks the size of pencils to be precise. Both have been looking guiltily at me in their rain-soaked winter soil so I threw them into a soup with some (intake of breath) - shop bought leeks and potato.

Being a food and gardening fan I can't help feeling guilty when I load up in the local vegetable shop, and even moreso in the supermarket. But not being superhuman I have yet to find the time to grow all my own veg, milk goats every morning and chase a few hens around the sitting room. What veg I do grow is paltry but a very pleasing crop, and unless you have lots of time to do keep a smallholding running at full tilt, the demon activity - food shopping is still a big part of most of our lives.

The way I rationalise it is to try and shop locally but I still end up visiting a supermarket once a month. And no, all the veg I buy is not locally farmed. I'm afraid I still like fresh tomatoes in the winter alongside chillies, peppers, aubergines etc, none of which grow in Ireland at this time of year. What I look for is vegetables coming from as near as possible, and buying it from a local person which is easy enough - we've a big veg shop five minutes drive away. He also stocks eggs from a farmer up the road, and Wicklow produce when in season.

It's at least better to spend money in his local business than in the multiples, especially as the food documentary I'm working on is bringing me deeper and deeper into the goings on behind the shiny happy smiles of some of our best known supermarkets. The more I know the more I try to avoid them.

In terms of how they treat Irish suppliers Superquinn and Supervalue seem to come out tops and they have a high level of commitment to stocking Irish beef, pork and chicken. So do Aldi surprisingly enough. These businesses also seem to understand that some, but not all consumers want to buy food from Ireland, so it's money in their pocket as well. There will always be cheap as chips food but there will also be premium customers who want good quality Irish food. It's just sad that more supermarkets don't go this direction.

So spreading my shop between local suppliers and the supermarkets is a reasonable enough compromise as far as I'm concerned, and unless I grow my own dishwasher tablets any day now, I don't see myself being totally free of a monthly supermarket visit. So throwing a few of my own veg into a dish alongside shop-bought produce is a way of straddling both camps. In terms of the soup, it has to be one of the easiest and cheapest to make. For four people you'll need -

Three large leeks

Two potatoes

Two litres of veg stock (can be stock cubes)

Knob of butter

Salt, pepper

Pinch of cumin to deepen the flavour

For extra taste you can add small lardons of cooked bacon. You can also pour in as much cream as you want, and grated Gubbeen cheese ups it to another level if you want a luxury version.

Simply clean and chop the leeks in inch long sections, soften in a large pan with the butter. Add the peeled and chopped potato, seasoning and stock and simmer for half an hour or so. Whizz it with a hand blender for a rustic texture (with lumps) or to a smooth cream. Basically, you can' t go wrong. Happy eating x

How to buy 200 euro worth of pork and not eat it all yourself

While these two girls - Pinky and Perky enjoy rooting in the Kildare mud, their beautifully flavoured offspring are in our freezer, awaiting distribution to various buyers and to the most important destination of all - the oven in my kitchen.


Yesterday I paid a visit to them down on the farm. For the record they are neither pinky or perky being close to 40 stone each in weight. Yes, forty. They are the size of small sofa and produce about 12 piglets per litter.



The sows belong to John de Robeck, a conventional farmer who got into free range Gloucester Old Spots several years ago. From these two females of his original stock, John's brood produced huge numbers of offspring. At one time he had as many as 180 pigs but found that even with these economies of scale, free range pork is a tough business to sustain.


Alongside commercial pig producers, the cost of feed has put real pressure on Irish pig farmers, even those like John who operate on a smaller scale. Keeping free range pigs is also particularly labour intensive and finding customers willing to pay a higher price for "artisan" pork is never easy. So John scaled down and now produces only a couple of litters a year, selling them direct from his farm.

For those who buy John's pork the disadvantages of a high cost system are outweighed by the mega flavour of the product. Once you've sampled his bacon it's very hard to eat anything else. It has a deep succulent quality; you can almost taste the woods and orchards where the pigs forage and most importantly, it's devoid of water and nitrates as it's "dry cured". So when you cook this bacon, you're not left with a nasty pan full of water.

So while you might pay 10 - 20% more for an artisan pork product, it doesn't contain water to bulk it out. So pound for pound, let alone flavour, it's a pretty good deal.



John weans the piglets much later than a commercial pig producer would and kills them at nine months. Commercial pork is killed at about six months old. Allowing the animals a bit more growing time is crucial to why free range pigs taste better - under six months of age or so pigs have little fat on their body, and fat is what flavours most meats - it permeates through the grain of the muscle when cooked, softening it and giving it a wonderfully rich flavour.



Bord Bia Quality Assured pork from big producers is still pretty good pork, and if you want to buy a cheaper product that is Irish, and properly farmed this is the direction to go. The standards demanded under this system are high and it guarantees what's on your plate is Irish produced and processed at every step from the sow to fork. But if you've a passion for a good tasting product or keeping old animal breeds as part of the food chain, there should be a place for both types of systems. Even buying free range pork occasionally is a way of keeping the small guys producing an alternative.






John also has a beautiful collection of store cattle housed at the moment; mostly continental crosses - Charolais, Simmental and some Belgian Blues. I'm obviously a strange fish as I love looking at good cattle for that unique combination of top quality confirmation, pretty looks and visualising how great they'll taste on my plate. And if you're feeling guilty about scrutinising the largeness of their hind end, just ruffle their polls and they'll look at you all gooey-eyed and content.


It's lovely to spend a day with a someone doing different systems on the one farm - conventional beef farming plus free-range pork. Like most Irish farmers John wants to produce top quality food, and despite the huge man hours and patience that go into keeping free range pigs and selling the produce yourself, he has too much of a passion for what he does to give them up. He's also a bit of a softy when it comes to animal welfare; liking his pigs to be out and living as natural a piggy life as possible.



I came back from a happy day in Kildare laden with 200 euro worth of pork; sausages, rashers, loin, ribs and hams booked for a number of enthusiastic buyers who raved about his last batch. If you want to try John's produce you can contact him on jderobeck@eircom.net. The rashers alone are out of this world. If I don't stop eating them I'm heading straight for a cricket score cholesterol count. Sod it, what about those sausages...

Ditch the prosciutto and go smoked... Irish

I'm always looking for fast suppers. In fact fast food in general - the type that doesn't come with a piece-of-crap plastic toy your dog or toddler swallows before a fun night out in A&E.

One easy way to guarantee a fast meal is to use preserved foods. This is because smoked, cured or tinned food can be left for months while you ignore the "eat me" guilty looks that the withering lettuce and pudgy aubergine throw at you from the bottom shelf.

While preserved foods might sound like something scary and veering in the direction of mummification, think of what the Italians serve as antipasto - prosciutto, salami, marinated artichoke hearts, roasted peppers in olive oil and the mouthwatering speciality of my local Italian wine bar, some Speck cheese or some parmigiano reggiano.

This is the luxury end of the scale but remember - tins of beans are also a preserved food, as are lentils, kidney beans, tomatoes, cans of sardines and tuna. All are cheap choices that can be chucked into pasta with a dash of olive oil and a few torn basil leaves or whatever herbs you have to hand.

But if we think a little outside the Parma-ham box, preserved foods from closer to home deserve a lot more attention than they get - one of them being smoked fish. There are several really good brands now available in the supermarkets so you can eat local food without having to trawl too far for it. Sadly, it tends to be a product that's really esteemed by our export markets but gets a quieter reception on the home front. Part of this may be that herring, mackerel etc used to have the perception of being "poor man's food" as it was eaten on a Friday as a meat alternative and generally, things that came from the sea were not as valued as things that had four legs.

The thing is, smoked mackerel or smoked trout make an outrageously quick meal - open the packet, put together a green salad and serve with some olives and crusty bread. It's also great served with a ratatouille (pictured at the top) as the sharpness of the tomato makes a nice accompaniment to the smokey smooth fish.

Smoked trout and mackerel are also a lot cheaper than salmon. My favourite thing to do with it is whizz it with some creme fraiche, lemon juice and dill - this results in a fantastic pate that gets loads of "where did you get this from?" interrogations. For about three euro you can pick up smoked mackerel and trout in the supermarket from the likes of William Carr and sons. These are the bigger manufacturers but on a smaller scale there are increasingly more Irish artisan producers doing smoked foods and getting a lot of international attention for their products -

Ummera- is owned and run by Anthony Creswell and their smoked chicken and duck has won a rake of awards. It's a delicious alternative to smoked fish and has a lot less salt than cured meats. Their smoked chicken is truly out of this world. www.ummera.com

Goatsbridge's Mag and Ger Kirwan not only run a trout farm supplying live trout around the country but produce a range of smoked trout products which are really delicious and have received great attention both in Ireland and internationally. http://www.goatsbridgetrout.ie

Belvelly – Located near Cobh, this tiny smokehouse is run by Frank Hederman and his wife Caroline (who co-wrote the “Good Food in Cork” guide along with Ireland´s culinary grande dame Myrtle Allen). They cure salmon, mackerel, and mussels with organic English salt and hang-smoke it using beech wood. http://www.frankhederman.com/

Connemara Smokehouse does a range of smoked salmon, tuna and mackerel. Interestingly their tuna is very sustainable, being line-caught in Irish waters thanks to an initiative to develop a sustainable and environmentally friendly way of catching wild tuna. www.smokehouse.ie/

There's also Rogan's real smoked fish, Burren smokehouse, Old Millbank smokehouse, McConnell's gourmet smoked foods and guess what, a handful of other Irish food businesses doing the smoked thing very well. I'm hoping that smoked fish, chicken and duck can find wider popularity with Irish consumers. And while we are now very familiar with the joys of Italian meat and cured hams, it would be nice to see some Irish smoked products taking their place. If I really get the time I fancy smoking some fish myself, after all, we do have a stream in the garden, and there's got to be some fish in it. Okay, you're all laughing now.

I heart you

Thanks so much to all of you - Basketcase has been nominated in the Best Food and Drink Blog category for the Irish Blog Awards. I'm really delighted and grateful to everyone who gave it their vote and who takes the time to read or contribute to the blog - all your comments are greatly appreciated - good, bad or insane. On this valentines day, I heart all of you.

I'm also thrilled to see the amount of people reading and engaging in the issues raised on Basketcase; it's a sign that the origin of food is important to many people, and the realisation that cheap factory farmed rubbish hurts Irish food producers, and ourselves the consumers at the end of the day.

Cooking is great but not if what is on the plate came from a food or farming process that you wouldn't want people to know about. I've been inside a 10,000 unit pig enterprise in Holland and it ain't pretty, and I really mean that. Keeping Irish farming in the hands of farming families and keeping food producing away from monolith multinationals is an important way to secure a decent food culture in Ireland, and a shorter, healthier food chain. Thanks again to everyone, and keep telling me what you think of the blog and what you'd like to see more, or less of.

By the way, I didn't make the hearts in the above photo, I'd love to have, but desserts are my weakest element. What I really need to to do sometime is a pastry course; I recently interviewed Louise Lennox - the pastry chef from RTE's "The Restaurant" for an upcoming food feature and she has won me over with her passion for sweet things and chocolate creations. She says she even uses chocolate as a facemask, "and if you get bored, you can just lick it off" - exactly the kind of cooking I like.

In the meantime on this Valentines Day I am going retro and serving fillets from my local butchers O'Donovans - (pictured here - the butchers not the fillets), with Neven Maguire's Diane Sauce. I have a nice Montepulciano d'Abruzzo to match; it's a good full bodied fruity red, perfect for steak and an inexpensive change from Guigal Cotes du Rhone which is drunk far too often in this house.

Here's the recipe for Neven's sauce, happy Valentines Day to all, and more importantly, happy eating x

Ingredients - serves 4
1 tablespoon olive oil,
4 x 8oz/225g each sirloin steaks,
1 teaspoon butter,
1 small onion, peeled and diced,
5oz/150g button mushrooms, sliced,
¼ pint/150ml white wine,
110ml brandy,
2 tablespoons worster sauce,
¼ pint/150ml beef stock,
¼ pint/150ml double cream,
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
squeeze of lemon juice Method

Melt the butter in a hot frying pan. Add the shallot and mushrooms and cook for 2 minutes. Add brandy, it will flame up for about 5-10 seconds then subside when the flame burns off. Add white wine and reduce by half.

Stir in stock, worster sauce and cream. Reduce to a sauce consistency, which will coat the back of a spoon. Sprinkle in parsley and lemon juice. Season to taste. Set aside and keep warm until ready to serve.

I went all the way to Manhattan and all I got was a lousy stomach bug. Bad Food part deux

Good to see my post on food safety in Irish restaurants generating heat on twitter thanks to @keithbohanna and a bit of back and forth on whether restaurant owners are beaten down by food regs, or whether we're all a bunch of sissies who get ill at the sight of a raw steak. I agree that over-regulation drives small producers and restaurants mad, but putting customers at risk is another matter and if you are served with a closure notice, it must have been felt that bad practice was taking place.

While most restaurants in Ireland put food safety high on the agenda it's still sadly the case that we've all been poisoned by some food outlet at some stage, and this is coming from someone who survived a long period in India eating street food without any catastrophes. I think my stomach out-bugs any newcomers. Can't be a good sign but anyway...

Taking the topic further afield, it seems the most swanky city in the world still has big problems with food safety, New York's Department of Health's recent list of restaurants-breaking-the-rules featured two Michelin starred eateries - Gilt and A Voce on Madison Avenue. Another well-known downtown restaurant The Meatball Shop was given a fairly high score of infringements including “food not protected from potential source of contamination” and inadequate personal cleanliness. Lovely.

So just because you put your high heels on (yes gentlemen), spend two months on a waiting list and pay a fortune, it doesn't gaurantee what you're eating is perfectly safe. I think in general Irish chefs and restaurant owners open restaurants because they have a passion for food and would never fall into a standards vortex. Most of them feel that the food safety regs here are too severe, but if they are really involved in their businesses and regularly police the standard of food leaving their kitchens they have nothing to worry about. It's the cowboy operators that put customers at risk, and some tales told to me recently would seem to bear this out.

I thought the recession might weed some of them out but it seems recession kills off good joints as well as bad ones. The only thing we can do is vote with our feet; eat where food is prepared with care and has an authenticity behind it. If possible, eat food produced in Ireland. And no, chicken caesar salads in Temple Bar are not Irish food. I think consumers are becoming more educated on what is genuine food and what is a cheap rip-off, but not everyone can spot this. In the meantime the FSAI are going to keep rapping knuckles, hopefully as time goes on, there will be less of them to rap.

Are these restaurant owners deluded?

I've written here before about breaches in food safety in Irish restaurants and it seems January was a pretty popular month for it - three eateries were shut down last month because of the risks they were taking with food, and ultimately customer's health. It seems like madness to me that in a time when businesses are trying to generate new customers, you would take shortcuts with food to the extent that the Food Safety Authority end up closing you down.

Are these people thinking straight at all? Is it a case of - "Okay, that ham is a week past its sell by date but sure if we sling it on top of a pizza and no one will notice". Em, I think they will; customers aren't stupid and neither or the health authorities. And what we don't know, is how many people who ate food from these places ended up ill before they were closed down.

There are 49,000 food businesses in Ireland. While the times may be tight this is not an excuse to be cutting corners to this extent. Dr. Alan Reilly from the FSAI pointed out that "These errors include dirty premises and unhygienic practices, all leading to a variety of potential food safety hazards, be it contamination of foodstuffs; cross-contamination from raw to cooked foods and improper storage of food. It affects not only the premises involved, but the industry as a whole".
He's right - it does affect the industry as a whole - it knocks our faith in what we are eating and makes us wonder if there is bad stuff going on behind the kitchen doors of our favourite restaurant. All we can hope for is that this lastest round of closures and enforcement orders might give the bad practitioners a wake up call. For those of you looking to breathe a sigh of relief, the food outlets closed down were -
• Wok In take-away, 9 Captains Hill, Leixlip, Kildare
• The Burger Hut Foodstall, Knockcroghery, Roscommon

• Rezmerita Plus Ltd supermarket trading as Polonez,(Delicatessen and Butcher area only), Athlone Shopping Centre, Athlone, Westmeath


Not only that, but last month the FSAI served Improvement Orders on the following businesses whose food safety practises were not up to scratch, hopefully they will take note and pay a bit more attention to what customers are eating:


• Roma Take Away, 4 Lower Kennelsfort Road, Palmerstown, Dublin 20 and
• Bassetts at Woodstock restaurant, Woodstock, Inistioge, Kilkenny
While we know the vast majority of Irish restuarants have a great record in food safety and hygiene it's worth remembering that there are outlets out there who don't place this as a priority. So for the moment I will continue to keep and eye on the bad ones, while continuting to applaud the good guys. Happy eating folks x

Building an Artisan food sector in Ireland - hey folks, it's already there

I returned windswept and shaken from a conference in Tullamore last night. It wasn't the content of the day that had me in shock but rather getting stuck on Brian Cowen's throw-s***-loads-of- money-at-Tullamore-to-keep-my-seat series of ringroads built without a single sign back to the motorway that tested my nerves. Let alone that the weather did its level best to add to the confusion.

Happily, earlier in the day I was speaking on the subject of building jobs in rural Ireland from the artisan food sector - a subject close to my heart, and my stomach. According to Bord Bia's figures released last week the artisan food sector is in good nick - the 400 small food companies they work with provide 3000 people with employment and with a turnover of 400 million annually it's grown at a rate of 7% per year since 2007.

But all isn't rosy in the garden, and as someone who talks to food producers throughout the year and tells their stories, things are a little harder on the ground. Getting paid is a major issue for small food producers, with suppliers of cheese and the like waiting long periods to get paid from outlets which buy their stock; particularly restaurants. Not only does this create cash flow problems but it fosters fear that their buyer is about to go under which isn't the nicest feeling in the world.

If you're a small food company, getting money from banks to expand or provide more employment is almost impossible at the moment, and dealing with very restrictive food regulations is also driving people mad. I know that Eurotoques the chefs group has made representations to the powers that be to make things easier for smaller producers; putting Irish food businesses through the hoop on regulations that aren't followed in other EU companies seems particularly unfair.

We all want to eat safe food, but if we see butchers in France with more casual set-ups than what's required in comparison to here still producing good safe food, then the legislation can surely to be adapted to be more flexible.

The decline in consumer spend is the biggest problem communicated to me by producers. Whether they have a stall at a farmers market or produce large quantities of a premium product to the multiples, their customers are spending less money and business can be tight at times. However, I spoke with one food seller yesterday who pointed out that if people come into your shop and spend less, you just need more customers to come in the door to make up the same numbers at the end of the month.

So expanding customer base is key, while keeping the customers you already have. I feel that even in these less than rosy times, people who buy artisan food even occasionally find it difficult to go back to eating total rubbish. I think once you're converted you stay that way, and if you spend less now on food (like most of us do), then so be it. It's simply the case at the moment that if more consumers are tempted go down the local/artisan food route, and spend money on it even now and again, then producers can stay in business.

My presentation (which you may not gather from the above) was actually very positive about the Irish small food business sector and this was backed up by case studies by Joy Moore from Oldtown Hill Bakehouse and Bernadine Mulhall from Coolnaowle Country House and Organic Farm from who gave a potted history of how their businesses had started and where they stood now. Both were really interesting examples of successful hard working entrepreneurs who had a passion for what they do.

Bernadine's situation in particular stood out as herself and her husband had left conventional mixed farming to start an organic system. After spraying their wheat crop with pesticides every year her husband was ill afterwards for several days. So they turned organic and his health recovered. This doesn't say much for what we're putting on our fields, though I think we knew this already.

Overall the conference was a great day, and thanks to National Rural Network who invited me to speak. It was lovely to catch up with buddies from my old days on Ear to the Ground and with Ollie Moore, Catherine Mack, Duncan Stewart and other writers who share a common agenda in keeping good food in production in Ireland. While it's clear that it's our large scale dairy and beef sectors that are the real contributors to the 8 billion euro worth of food we export each year, artisan food still has a very important place at the table. It functions as a way to keep people farming, making food and living in the Irish countryside, which far outways the attractions of producing factory food at low prices.

While there's a world wide market for cheap food, we will kill farming in Ireland if we adopt the US model of producing at the lowest possible price point. Somewhere in the mix Ireland can occupy the middle ground and in fact, the upper ground as well.

Thanks again to all the great speakers who contributed to my knowledge on renewable energies, dairy expansion and the other subjects which aroused a lot of discussion on the day. A further big thanks to David Meredith and Kevin Heanue from Teagasc for letting me grill them on supermarkets; getting to the bottom of their huge margins and understanding what exactly they are up to.... but we'll hold that news till later.

x

Into the West; where's the good food?

On a foray into the West last week I was determined to prove that there was more to eat than the "rubber cheese sandwich" type offering that a friend recently convinced me was all that Connemara had to offer.


No no no! I said, Connemara is coming down with gorgeous local eateries, fresh seafood and hidden gems! A couple of days later I was wondering had I spoken too soon. That's not to say there isn't good food available in this part of the world - just not enough of it, and I'm talking specifically about Connemara - we know that Galway City has plenty of good restaurants but as you head Northwards into the real beauty-shot country which is a huge tourist magnet for international visitors, the landscape gets rough and beautiful while the food just gets, well, rough.



And this is the contrast that really struck me on my three day trip. If you have a region that is a huge draw for tourist euros, why aren't there more restaurants and cafes capitalising on this and offering local food of good quality?

Two places that I ate in really impressed here, the first was Ashford Castle which I had expected to be fairly average five star food, by which ususally means; anonymous, foie gras on the menu, expensive wine list and really geared towards Americans. However, I was very pleasantly surprised - most of their menu was sourced locally, including vegetables (which is hard enough to pull off in this part of the world and in winter), every detail of their menus from crusty breads to afternoon biscuits were made in their kitchens and the entire cheese board was an Irish selection. And the waiters and staff had good knowledge of food on the plate, local food and what they were selling. An unexpected top marks here, and even at this level it represented real value for money.



Another eaterie that scored highly in Connemara is O'Dowds seafood bar in Roundstone - the beautiful harbour village pictured above. O'Dowds is no secret and last week they deservedly won a Le Bib Gourmet award from the hard-core bunch at Michelin, which means they are recommended as a local food and "value for money" outlet. And that doesn't surprise, the boats are pulled up literally yards from O'Dowds unloading the crab that appears on their menu. Their food is fresh, delicious and tastes of the West which is something that the West should be selling as strongly as its scenery. After all, it's on the edge, literally, of the freshest, sharpest seafood factory in the world, but somehow the wealth of the Atlantic or the mountain lamb of Connemara just isn't widely available when you try to find a place to eat it.


In advance of my visit I looked to Good Food Ireland and its map of Irish restaurants - they have four members in Galway county - Ard Bia at Nimmos in Galway city and Bar No. 8 at Dock Road in Galway. Outside the city they list White Gables Restaurant in Moycullen and the Connemara Coast Hotel. I know that Good Food Ireland members have to be really committed to Irish food to be members of the group but I was still surprised there were not more food outlets generally heading this way in an area which is all about authenticity and a "real" Irish experience.


Instead, there are villages all across this part of the West where the rubber cheese sandwich rules or garage hot counter food (God save us) is all that's available. And I'm not saying that five star is the way to go... small cafes with a good food ethos can be just as succesful. And food can be a destination draw in itself; Moran's on the Weir outside Galway brings people to that area, just to eat, proving that food itself can be a tourist draw, not an add on.




I've been told that Olivers sea food bar in Cleggan is one for a decent food in Connemara list, as is the Avoca in Letterfrack. I know the Avoca's are hugely successful, in fact I live in the shadow of the Powerscourt Avoca and find myself there far too often for comfort - but their food is a solid winner, fresh, with an Irish twist and it ticks every box on the list, especially for tourists. It's just a pity that it might take the Avoca in Letterfrack to show other smaller operators how to do the same thing in a smaller way, I would love to see more independent good food operators in this part of the West. If you have more to add to the list, please send them my way x