I’ve been a photo hobbyist since I got given my first serious camera as a fourteenth birthday present. A Zeiss Ikon ‘folder’ that took a mere eight shots to a roll of film, far cry from today’s digital wonders. It had an f4.5 lens, very slow by today’s standards. Being something of a tech head ...
There are now over 400 food bloggers in Ireland. Though www.forkncork.com my food and drink website, Ireland’s first, has been up and running almost ten years I never considered myself a part of the blogosphere. Though the term ‘blog’ had been coined in the early noughties it certainly wasn’t in common usage, at least not ...
I’ve had my outdoor pizza oven for a year now and I think last Saturday was the first night I’ve really felt confident with it. This was due in no small measure to the calming presence of Leslie Williams who is further down the pizza trail than me. The building of the oven is fairly ...
Whalley’s First Law of Pastatherapy: To make pasta successfully you need three arms + a table 12 inches wide x 18 feet long + one of those old-fashioned clothes drying racks that winds up to the ceiling. Fresh, homemade pasta is so much better than anything you can get at the shops. In Ireland, at ...
Just received the news that the next Tasting Australia – April 26 to May 3, 2012 will be the last, at least in Adelaide. Amazingly, next year will be the eighth time this biennial festival has been held. I’ve been at the last four and, if I get the call, I’ll be in ‘The City ...
It does seem churlish to moan about a bit of meat while the cities of Britain are on fire. Still, I’m fed up to the back teeth – the front ones are pretty sore too – with eating average-to-bad steak as well as having to listen to my food writing friends extolling the quality of ...
Now the lavender in the garden is in bloom it’s time to make one of my favourites and certainly one of the most intriguing ice creams. Lavender ice cream, being quite perfumed, is not to everyone’s taste. That said, I love it, particularly teamed with home made aniseed cookies or shortbread biscuits spiced up with ...
There’s a fine old ding-dong going on over on the forum pages about Irish food blogger Donal Skehan’s ‘Kitchen Hero’. Irish TV production companies have never been noted for giving us anything that resembles creativity. Lack of imagination, low budgets, whatever… .. something always seems to get in the way. RTE like to genuflect towards ...
Olivier Quenet’s fine restaurant Olivier’s at The Schoolhouse occupies a great room, made even better by the warm, bright afternoon sun as I found out last Friday when I breezed in to partake of a whiskey masterclass during which some of Cooley Distillery’s finest were teamed with Olivier’s creative and tasty cuisine. In fact we ...
Slow Fish 2011, the sustainable fish event, will take place in Genoa (Italy) from May 27 to 30. This biennial international event dedicated to the world of fish and marine ecosystems has now reached its fifth edition. Debates, meetings, workshops and tastings will focus on issues linked to sustainable fishing and responsible seafood consumption. A ...
