Book of Recipes & Stories to support Cancer Services

“In the Pot” is a collection of recipes and anecdotes from well known personalities, cancer survivors & their
families. Devised and co-written by Linda Kinsella, the book contains over 80 delicious recipes, ranging from
traditional Irish stew to Foie Gras Parfait to Orange Cointreau Jelly, with many contributors sharing heartfelt
stories and anecdotes on food, love and life!

Throughout the cookbook you will also find expert wine pairing suggestions by Kevin O’Brien of O’Briens
Wines.

All proceeds of the cookbook are in the aid of the Cancer Clinical Research Trust and patient care at
St. Vincent's Hospital

The cookbook was complied and created by Linda Kinsella and Frank Buckley, who recognise that “In the Pot” would not have been possible without the help and goodwill of many individuals including : Gay Byrne, Jenny Buckley, Joe Duffy, Sen. David Norris, Brent Pope, Niall Quinn, Jeremy Irons, Podge & Podge, Miriam O’Callaghan, Cathy Kelly, Maeve Binchy, Darina Allen, Bertie Ahern, Ken Doherty and Prof. John Crown.

You can find out more about the book and where to purchase it here at
http://www.inthepot.ie/index.html

Or you can phone the author Linda Kinsella direct for a copy on 086 660 7901

Don't forget to Feed the Fish at the bottom of this post!
zack

Recipes from Ireland required for Rachel Gaffney's new American TV Show

Rachel Gaffney has lived in the US for 15 years.

She is an American mother with and Irish soul. She teaches cooking classes and does frequent cooking segments for ABC, CBS. She has guested on 'The Martha Stewart Show' - a very popular American syndicated TV Cooking Show.

Rachel is looking for creative recipes from Ireland for a new American look at Ireland's food with a view to rejuvenating America's view of what Irish modern food is all about. She wants to feature a recipe from all 32 Counties in Ireland!

Rachel showing Martha Stewart how to make Irish Butter Shortbread!

The object of the program is to reflect the essence of your county in the dish that you are preparing. This is totally dependant on your location whether it be on the coast with it's abudance of fresh fish and seafood, or inland with the lush green patures giving dairy product and lean meats.

They will reproduce 50 of the submitted recipes for on line videos. Each will be expertly produced by Bob Altman, Emmy Award winning producer, former executive producer of The Martha Stewart Show, producer of Everyday Food Series for PBS, Martha Stewart Weddings for Style Network and many more on American network TV.

Full credit will be given to you and your business, linking people to your website, making this a great way for home cooks and artisan producers to gain some extra exposure to your blog or business.

Simple rules apply and the recipe will be re-created by professional TV chefs for broadcast.

You must live in the county you are representing.

You must use fresh ingredients (no processed foods)

The recipe must not be too complicated (as it will be condensed into a 2-3minute video clip)

It can be an Appetizer, Bread, Dip, Drink/Cocktail, Entree, Dessert or any other type of dish.

Remember you have to Highlight your County and some of its local produce in order to be considered.

Full details are here on her website at:

http://rachelgaffney.blogspot.com/

and here
RECIPES FROM IRELAND

Farmgate Café, Cork awarded Bord Bia’s Just Ask! Restaurant of the Month for April 2011

1^st April, 2011 and Farmgate Café, Cork has been awarded Bord Bia’s Just Ask! Restaurant of the Month for April 2011.  Situated overlooking Cork’s famed English Market; Farmgate Café is an example of what is best about sourcing ingredients locally. Farmgate Café prides itself on using fresh Irish food that has travelled as short a distance as possible to reach customers’ plates, with almost all of the produce coming straight from the market counters downstairs.

Farmgate Café only uses beef, lamb, chicken, eggs and vegetables produced in Ireland. Against the backdrop of a bustling market, freshly shucked oysters are brought straight to the table from O’Connell’s fish stall downstairs. Meat, locally reared, comes from trusted Market craft butchers, and the finest of fresh fish is chosen every morning from O’Connell’s and Ballycotton Seafood – the Market is the café’s larder. Cork cheese makers, Molaga Honey and Thornhill Organic salad leaves from West Cork are delivered directly to the Café.

Just Ask! is a Bord Bia campaign which aims to encourage consumers to look for information on where their food comes from when eating out and encourages chef’s to provide the information on their menus. According to recent research from Bord Bia, 81% of Irish diners believe it’s important that restaurants use local produce with 72% deeming it important that the origin of meat is listed on the menu.

Farmgate Café owner, Kay Harte said, “Situated in the oldest Market in Ireland, centuries old traditional, seasonal, regional, even ‘forgotten’ foods are at the core of Farmgate ethos, and a visible link between the menu and the wonderful array of produce downstairs in the Market plays a key role in how our menu is written each day. We work closely with Market traders, as well as an array of local and regional producers to bring simple but wonderful Irish food to the table.”

Georgina Campbell said, “Farmgate provides a uniquely Irish eating experience and plays a role in supporting a vibrant Irish food culture while truly embracing how good indigenous ingredient and food products are and as virtually all ingredients are purchased from the market downstairs daily, or from other trusted suppliers nearby, it doesn’t come much fresher or more local than this.”

As part of Bord Bia’s Just Ask! programme, restaurants listed on Georgina Campbell’s ireland-guide.com website are invited to submit copies of their menus and sourcing statements.  On a monthly basis, a Just Ask! winner is chosen by Georgina Campbell in agreement with Bord Bia. In addition, an overall Just Ask! annual award winner is selected as part of the Georgina Campbell Awards which take place during October.

To get involved in Just Ask! or to find out more, see www.bordbia.ie. With so many great value restaurants right on your doorstep, eating out is still on the menu!

For more information on Farmgate Café visit www.farmgate.ie/corkhome.htm

Nouvelle Cuisine inventor, Paul Bocuse, named Chef of the 20th Century

The Frenchman Paul Bocuse  credited as the father of modern "Nouvelle Cuisine" and the first of his kind of international TV celebrity chefs, was named "Chef of the Century" by America's leading cooking school on Wednesday. The Culinary Institute of America named Bocuse the top chef of the 20th century, citing the 85-year-old's legendary career in which he transformed both food on plates and the lives of the people who cooked.

"He is one of the greatest, most significant chefs of all time," Tim Ryan, president of the institute said at an event with Bocuse in New York prior to the awards ceremony on Wednesday evening. Ryan said Bocuse led the movement in the 1960s and '70s in France that became known as "Nouvelle Cuisine" – The New Cooking Style, and was typified by experimentation, new care over presentation and attention to fresh ingredients.

He also brought cooks out of the anonymity of the kitchen and into the media, becoming the first celebrity chef of the modern era.

The term ‘nouvelle cuisine’ has been used many times in the history of French cuisine and in the 1890s even the cooking of Georges Auguste Escoffier was described with the term.

The Michelin Guide elevated Bocuse and his Lyon restaurant ‘L'Auberge’ to its top three-star rating in 1965 and has maintained him there ever since – the all-time record for longevity in that status. “While other cooks gallop after fads – orientalist cuisine, or fusion, or molecular or whatever next – Bocuse, they say, keeps the faith”. Considered a French icon, Bocuse, has said that the secret of success in the kitchen is simple food, simple ingredients and simple cooking. Here is a link to L'Auberge Restaurant Menu.

“You can not forget the good ingredients. If there are not good ingredients, there is no good cooking," he said at the New York event, adding: "There is no great or small cooking -- there is only good."

His impact on gastronomy has been described as “indelible”. But as for his role in inventing "Nouvelle Cuisine," Bocuse is less than eager to accept the honour, saying the term was a media invention and the cooking was not  "some incredible revolution."

The ‘Formula’ that defined Nouvelle Cuisine was based around 10 characteristics of this new style of cooking. The ten characteristics identified were:

• A rejection of over complicating the dish.
• Cooking-times for most fish, seafood, game birds, veal, green vegetables and pâtés were greatly reduced in an attempt to preserve the natural flavours. Steaming food became a new trend.
• The dishes were made with the freshest possible ingredients.
• Large menus were abandoned in favour of shorter menus.
• Strong marinades were no longer used to mask the true flavours of meat and game.
• They stopped using heavy sauces thickened with flour-based roux, in favour of seasoning their dishes with fresh herbs, high quality butter, lemon juice, and vinegar.
• They used traditional & regional dishes for inspiration.
• New techniques and modern equipment were embraced. Bocuse even used microwave ovens.
• The chefs paid close attention to the dietary needs of their guests through their dishes.
• The chefs were extremely inventive and created new combinations and pairings.

 By the middle of the 1980’s many chefs began returning to the classical style of cooking, although much of the lighter presentations and new techniques of Nouvelle Cuisine remain to this day.

Known for his humorous approach to the hard work of being a globe-trotting chef, Bocuse once joked: "Nouvelle Cuisine was nothing on the plate, but everything on the bill.”

He was not alone in this particular line of thought!

zack

Wagamama help with GORTA’s Soup for Life appeal

Wagamama help with GORTA’s Soup for Life appeal

Wagamama are offering ‘soupport’ to GORTA as part of their Soup for Life appeal, taking place during National Soup Week, beginning on Friday 8^th April 2011.

From 8^th-15^th April 2011, for every Chicken Ramen soup purchased in Wagamama restaurants across the Republic of Ireland, Wagamama will donate €1 to GORTA, to help with their overseas work.

GORTA, Ireland’s longest established overseas development agency aims to improve long-term food security primarily in sub-Saharan Africa. Their vision is a world where there is no hunger and where the poorest rural communities have the means to create a positive future for themselves and their children.

Wagamama say they are proud to support this vision by taking part in the Soup for Life appeal.

"Throughout its 12 years in Ireland the Wagamama philosophy has remained unchanged: to combine fresh and nutritious food in an elegant yet simple setting with helpful, friendly service and value for money" a spokesperson said.  

"Positive Eating & Positive Living"

The Wagamama ethos, developed since the first restaurant opened in London in 1992, is to combine great, fresh and nutritious food with helpful, friendly service and value for money.

The Dublin city centre restaurant on South King Street opened its doors for the first time in 1998 and they expanded to Cork in 2005. In July 2010, they opened a 2,500sq ft restaurant seating 100 in Blanchardstown.

For more information regarding GORTA and the Soup for Life appeal visit www.gorta.org and www.soupforlife.ie and http://www.wagamama.ie/

Soup For Life - National Soup Week Starting Friday 8th April

Calling All Restaurants!

For the second year running, Gorta has launched its exciting spring fundraising initiative called Soup for Life. They are asking soup lovers and foodies alike to help make hunger history by gathering friends, family and colleagues for a fun get together over a pot of soup and make a contribution to gorta’s work fighting hunger in Africa.

Gorta are inviting all restaurant owners to make a donation of €1 for each bowl of soup you sell during National Soup Week (8th - 15th April 2011). You can join all of the restaurants, hotels, pubs and cafés who participated last year and get involved for a day, a couple of days or maybe even the whole week!

For a List of Participating Restaurants and more Vist their Blog at: 

 http://blog.soupforlife.ie/2011/03/list-keeps-on-growing.html

See all of the soupporters who have already signed up, and are helping to make hunger history.

Why get involved?
■Online publicity
■Media campaign
■Photo opportunities
■Corporate responsibility

What are the benefits?
'Soup for Life’ creates an opportunity to reflect on the difficulties families in the developing world face in providing for themselves and their children, and also the work that gorta does to ensure communities in sub-Saharan Africa have the tools and the knowledge to become self-sufficient.

Have a Look at their Video Promo...

Gorta supports agricultural activities including livestock rearing, irrigation schemes and other water-based projects as well as the support of education, healthcare initiatives and income-generating activities. Visit gorta.org to get more information on our overseas programmes. You can help fund these initiatives through participating in the ‘Soup for Life’ campaign.

The Poster for your Restaurant is Available to download here...

http://www.soupforlife.ie/pdf/SFL_2011_Restaurant_Poster.pdf

PUT YOUR NAME IN THE POT NOW!

Don't forget to feed the fish at the bottom of this post!

zack

Connaught Regional Winners at the RAI Irish Restaurant Awards 2011

The Restaurant Association of Ireland #raiawards11
The Irish Restaurants Awards for the Province of Connaught
were held on Monday 28th March 2011, in The House Hotel, Galway.

The Full List of Regional Winners for Connaught are:

2011 Best Customer Service Award Galway - Lough Inagh Lodge

2011 Best Customer Service Award Leitrim - The Cottage

2011 Best Customer Service Award Mayo - Café Rua

2011 Best Customer Service Award Roscommon - The Purple Onion

2011 Best Customer Service Award Sligo - Davis Restaurant @ Yeat’s Tavern

2011 Best Wine Experience - Ashford Castle, Co. Mayo

2011 Best Casual Dining Award Galway - Bar 8

2011 Best Casual Dining Award Leitrim - Courtyard Kitchen

2011 Best Casual Dining Award Mayo - Sol Rio

2011 Best Casual Dining Award Roscommon - Meet You Here Café

2011 Best Casual Dining Award Sligo - Bistro Bianconi

2011 Best Hotel Restaurant Award Galway - Rosleague Manor

2011 Best Hotel Restaurant Award Leitrim - Lough Rynn castle

2011 Best Hotel Restaurant Award Mayo - The Kitchen Restaurant @ Mount Falcon

2011 Best Hotel Restaurant Award Roscommon - Abbey Hotel

2011 Best Hotel Restaurant Award Sligo - Romleach Lodge

2011 Best Gastro Pub Award Galway - O’Dowds

2011 Best Gastro Pub Award Leitrim – The Oarsman Bar

2011 Best Gastro Pub Award Mayo - Bar One

2011 Best Gastro Pub Award Roscommon - The Purple Onion

2011 Best Gastro Pub Award Sligo – Hargadon’s

2011 Best Chef Award Galway - Jess Murphy, Bar 8

2011 Best Chef Award Leitrim - Piero Meilis, The Courthouse

2011 Best Chef Award Mayo - Phillipe Farineau, Mount Falcon

2011 Best Chef Award Roscommon - Vincent Meldrum, The Purple Onion

2011 Best Chef Award Sligo - Moria Tighe, Cromleach Lodge

2011 Best Restaurant Award Galway - Asian Tea House

2011 Best Restaurant Award Leitrim - The Cottage

2011 Best Restaurant Award Mayo – The Market Kitchen

Y011 Best Restaurant Award Roscommon - The yew Tree

2011 Best Restaurant Award Sligo - Coach Lane @ Donaghy’s

The County winners will now compete for the Regional and All Ireland Titles in the Burlington Hotel Dublin on Wednesday 25^th May 2011. See www.irishrestaurantawards.com for more.

Congratulations to all those took part from zack at the @irishfoodguide