The inaugural Cork on a Fork Festival, a celebration of all things edible on Leeside and throughout the Rebel County, took place last August but snuck so quietly in the back door it can only be considered a dry run for this year’s festival proper. Running throughout the city for five days in August (16-20), it has a hugely expanded programme that transforms the entire town into one great big smorgasbord, with over 100 fabulous food events and experiences on offer.
Established by the city council in 2022 as a celebration of dining and nightlife in Cork along with the world-class produce to be found throughout the county, the comprehensive programme includes food trails, pop-ups, workshops, live street entertainment, demos, talks, and symposiums.
The 100-seater festival demo marquee in Emmet Place features top local chefs in action including Michelin-starred Takashi Miyazaki (Ichigo Ichie), Michelin Bib Gourmand chef Aishling Moore (Goldie), Clare Condon (Good Day Deli), Brian Murray (The Glass Curtain), and Darren Kennedy (Sage Midleton). Alongside will be a festival market and live family-friendly street entertainment.
Public al-fresco dining opportunities include a Corkchella festival picnic in the stunning gardens of Gabriel House, in St Lukes, whilst The Montenotte hosts host an exclusive Summer Champagne Afternoon Picnic in its Victorian sunken gardens.
L’Atitude 51 teams up with NeighbourFood, on its wonderful Union Quay boardwalk space to host a Cork NeighbourFood producers paella-plus dinner cooked alongside the river.
A Feast of Fashion Brunch at Sketch in The Imperial combines frocks with foodstuffs while a Sailing, Shucking and Shanties Cruise explores Cork Harbour with entertainment from Cobh Molgoggers and oyster shucking by legendary fishmonger Pat O’Connell, and an especial Menu favourite will be the Real Bread and Natural Wine event in the ever-splendid Calnan’s, on George’s Quay, featuring baker Ben Le Bon, Fanny Leenhardt-Coholan, and Pascal Rossignol of Le Caveau Wines.
There will equally be plenty of food for the mind and The Menu will be hosting and MCing a flagship conference, Feeding Cork The Sustainable And Healthy Way, and will also join food writers Caroline Hennessy and John and Sally McKenna for a conference on the future of food in Cork.
A dose of vitamin sea
Tramore’s small but perfectly formed Vitamin Sea Festival (September 15-17) celebrating its food and marine and outdoor culture fires a friendly warning shot across the bows with a launch event, a delightful midsummer garden party in the town’s Majestic Hotel (June 21, at 7.30pm) including a silent auction with complimentary canapes, drinks, and live music, and offering first dibs on sought-after tickets for the festival, food hampers and experiences.
All funds raised go to expanding the festival’s fringe programme. (Tickets on eventbrite.ie)
TODAY’S SPECIAL
The Menu very firmly believes that it behoves us all to reduce the amount of meat in our regular diet for the very obvious negative environmental impacts of industrial livestock farming. Instead, he advocates eating less but paying more for premium-quality and genuinely sustainable Irish meat, ideally sourced directly from the primary producer, thereby cutting out the industrial processing sector and giving the farmer his or her due reward.
There are many flexitarians — “part-time vegetarians” — doing just that and, as they haven’t made the leap entirely away from a meat-free diet, they continue to seek replacement products and ingredients which is where Sons of Butchers come in. Fourth-generation family butchers, Loughnane’s of Galway, especially renowned for pork products and puddings have, in their own words, gone “from herds to herbs”, adding a range of their own plant-based products to take the place of beef, chicken, and cheese.
The Menu is himself a recovering vegetarian who avoided eating meat for over 15 years but he never really bothered with “meat substitutes”, finding them far less satisfying than the real deal and anyway took far greater pleasure in addressing the cooking of superb fresh produce with innovation and a renewed sense of creativity, eventually coming to enjoy a diet that was far more fulfilling than the traditional meat-and-two-veg of yore.
Yet it was not without some curiosity that he agreed to try Sons of Butchers’ Bluff Burgers along with other plant-based products in the range, cooking up for himself a Bluff Burger, made with pea protein, coconut oil, and seasoning. Grilling is the recommended cooking method but The Menu found it fared as well if not better cooked low and slow in an oiled cast-iron pan, somewhere between fried and sautéed to properly develop a reasonable carmelised “meaty crust” and, having added all his usual trimmings, he topped it with a slice of Sons of Butchers’ Chedda Cheats plant-based fake cheese. What’s more, he then sat down and ate the lot and it was far from the worst thing he has ever put away, sporting reasonable textures and flavours and better, for starters, than many a late-night and very ill-advised post-pub purchase.
However, truth be told, he’ll probably never eat another. First of all, it is no substitute for the real deal (especially cheese!) and if in the market for a meatless alternative The Menu prefers to follow his own, homemade recipe using fresh ingredients. But for flexitarians resolutely avoiding anything other than the most fundamental of culinary endeavours in the kitchen or for frazzled parents attempting to feed offspring freshly converted to vegetarianism or veganism, it could prove something of a godsend — and the planet will certainly appreciate it!
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