I've just got back from the Dublin launch of the Kerrygold Ballymaloe Literary Festival of Food and Wine. What fun we had.
The event was held in The Fumbally with a fabulous menu put together by Kate Sanderson of canapés and drinks showcasing the best of Irish produce: all of it seasonal and much of it foraged and locally sourced. We had:
- Cured sea trout with baby beets and celeriac
- Gubbeen back fat lardo, served Hungarian style with onions and paprika on Fumbally sour dough
- Irish cheeses with homemade Dillisk crackers
- Fumbally blood sausage with burnt onion aïoli
- Avocado with fermented red cabbage on toast with artichoke oil & amaranth popcorn
- ...and little shots of Carragheen pudding with Dublin rooftop honey, chocolate soil and sorrel juice.
Broadcaster and historian and good friend of the festival, John Bowman, launched the event. Our guests included many well-known chefs, writers, journalists and
columnists, ex-Ballymaloe Cookery School
pupils, as well as number of our speakers from this year's LitFest. We had Sunil Chai, Executive Chef of Ananda; Aileesh Carew, Irish Year of Design; Paul O’Brien, the International Marketing Director of Kerrygold; Margaret Jeffares from Good Food Ireland; Sophie Morris, Kooky Dough...
It's less than a month to go to LitFest 2015 - May 15-17th. Do come along and join world-famous chefs and authors, boutique coffee roasters and guerrilla
gardeners, cocktail specialists to renowned
wine makers, movers and shakers, icons and the next big thing at the Kerrygold Ballymaloe Literary
Festival of Food and Wine 2015 www.litfest.ie.
