New York Launch

Just back from New York having successfully launched the Kerrygold Ballymaloe Literary Festival of Food and Wine - on our second attempt!

Believe it or not the sun shone on us this time. There was a change of venue - at Studio 1 on Broadway - and we had even more people than were expected at the original launch. This time some of the guests who were invited first time round sadly couldn't make it, including Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport Paschal Donohoe. But many many friends from Kerrygold, Tourism Ireland Board Bia and the Irish Dairy Board were there to cheer us on and celebrate the launch of our third LitFest which promises to be even bigger and better than previous years.

David Lebovitz (who will be speaking at this year's Litfest) was there, as were journalists from Monocle, Saveur, Martha Stewart Living, Food and Wine, Good Housekeeping, The Village Voice, and representatives from Dean & Deluca and the James Beard Foundation.

Before we left we packed up our cases with Ballymaloe brown yeast bread, homemade cheese biscuits and lots of lovely smoked salmon. Sean Hyde of Ballymaloe Country Relish USA was there to meet us with copious amounts of  Ballymaloe Relish and of course we had Kerrygold butter and cheese in abundance.

Here's what we ate...

• Shanagarry Organic Smoked Salmon on Ballymaloe Brown Bread with Kerrygold butter and Pickled Cucumbers
• Kerrygold Cashel Blue Cheese on a Brown Soda Cracker with Spiced Cranberries
• Roast Fillet of Irish Beef on Brown Bread and Kerrygold butter with Horseradish Mayonnaise
• Crudités with Aïoli
• A selection of Kerrygold Cheese (Kerrygold Dubliner, Skellig and Vintage Cheddar) with Pickles and Brown Soda Crackers
• Belvelly Smokehouse Smoked Mackerel and Chive Rillettes on Grilled Sourdough Bread
• Ballymaloe Vanilla Fudge as a goodbye treat.

David Tanis of the NY times (another speaker at this year's Litfest) rolled up his sleeves along with Betsy Klein and helped Rory in the open kitchen - piling cucumber pickle on top of the smoked salmon.

It was just a few days before St Patrick's Day so lots of Irish were over in New York spreading the word about Irish food - including Clodagh McKenna launching her new book Clodagh's Irish Kitchen.

The Irish craft cider producers were in town too: Dan Kelly's, Craigies Cider and Longueville House Cider were introducing their ciders to America, sharing them with our guests and getting a terrific response. Some of the Litfest speakers including Alice Feiring (natural wine) and past Ballymaloe Cookery School students including Malcom Jackson (part-time chef at Fitzcarraldo in Brooklyn) and our very first American and international student Tambra Dillon were all there - which was a lovely surprise. 

We had a very jolly time - we are very grateful for the support of our title sponsor Kerrygold and also to Tourism Ireland for supporting the US press launch.

Tasty Words: The Dream Package for (Wannabe) Food Writers at LitFest

There's never been a better time for those who want to write. You can just tap away on your keyboard or iPhone, and publish it immediately - on a blog, on Facebook, or email it to an editor. Anyone anywhere can write about what they're passionate about.

And it's so great that a lot of people have got that message - there really is some incredible stuff out there... but there's  also a lot that "needs more work".

LitFest is a haven for writers, wannabe writers, bloggers, journalists, food photographers. We celebrate food, books and words. Here's just a taste of what we have in store:

Short Courses at Ballymaloe Cookery School

Ballymaloe Cookery School is well known for its 12 Week Certificate Course - but we also run dozens of shorter courses throughout the year where you can learn a new skill and soak up inspiration.

I'm aware that many of you will be coming down to East Cork for the Kerrygold Ballymaloe LitFest of Food and Wine, and might be interested in extending your stay for a few more days to take a short course with us.

Coming up over the next couple of weeks you can:

• Get Blogging - make a start on that food blog you've been dreaming about... 
• Learn how to make butter, cheese and yoghurt
• Learn all about gluten free cooking with Rosemary Kearney
• Build your repertoire of irresistible breakfasts

MAD food Symposium, Copenhagen

I recently attended the MAD Food Symposium in Copenhagen. The word mad means food in Danish and the theme of this year’s Symposium, held in a red circus tent, was GUTS. This was interpreted in a variety of ways from intestines to raw courage by the speakers. There were many dramatic moments throughout the two days.

The symposium was launched on a stage that represented a Danish forest woodland scene – trees and logs and a carpet of grass and wild plants. A whole carcass of a Gloucester Old Spot pig dangled by the back legs from a chain in the centre of the stage, which gave us a hint that this year’s MAD Symposium was going to be a visceral two days of raw emotions and painful honesty.

I was almost the only white haired woman there, that is apart from Diana Kennedy, the feisty 90 year old cookbook author and noted environmentalist who gave a spirited talk about her life collecting and documenting recipes around remote villages in Mexico for over 60 years. Virtually everyone else was young, so many brilliantly crazy people: chefs, farmers, journalists, politicians, scientists, food writers, some of the brightest minds, all united by a love and passion for food and food issues.

With Ben Reade, a past Cookery School student, head of R& D at the Nordic Food Lab, and the Butter Vikings who we are hoping will join us for the next LitFest

David Chang from Momofuko in New York who co-curated the symposium with René Redzepi and his team, launched the event by telling us about his gutsy decision to open Momofuko in 2004. He introduced Dario Cecchini, the legendary Tuscan butcher famous for being able to recite Dante spontaneously as he butchers his carcass like poetry. He strode onto the stage dressed in red, green and white, knife in hand, with his wife Kim,  and told us the story of his family who have been butchers for over 250 years. He started to learn his trade in his early teens, but didn’t get a taste of beef a la fiorentina until he was 18, as butcher’s families and children traditionally ate the offal and less expensive cuts. He spoke dreamily of the peasant dishes his mother and grandmother used to make and as he did so, he gently slit the stomach of the pig and the guts tumbled out in a neat bundle. He transferred them to the butcher's block, then removed the liver, the heart and the kidneys, all the while talking about the noble craft, the importance of rearing, feeding and treating the animal humanely and being grateful for the gift of meat. All of this in front of an audience of over 600 people. It may sound macabre but it was really beautiful, one felt that the pig was having an honourable end and was being treated with respect, and was meant to promote conscious carnivorism and respect for animals.

Attendees enjoying lunch. With Nordic pears and plums there for the taking in a hollowed-out tree trunk in the foreground.

Over two riveting days different speakers (more than two dozen in all) explored the meaning of GUTS.  Margot Henderson from Rochelle Canteen in London and Barbara Lynch chef-owner of eight successful restaurants in Boston, spoke of the guts and courage it took to establish themselves as female chefs in a largely male dominated culinary climate, what Fergus Henderson (Margot’s husband  and beloved chef owner of St John Restaurant) refers to as ‘blokedom.’ They both got a standing ovation, as did Indian activist Vandana Shiva who has for many years been a stalwart champion of biodiversity, conservation and of small farmers around the world. As ever, she spoke eloquently and passionately about the myth of the ‘green revolution’ and “the dangers of a world where five companies control all life on earth.” She reminded us that the meaning of seed in virtually every language is to renew, so in that sense GM (Genetically Modified) seeds are not seeds at all because they are manufactured to deconstruct at the end of every growing season to prevent seed saving, so that the companies can sell the seeds to the farmers and create a system of dependence. She spoke of the re-colonisation that’s happening in Africa at the hands of the biotech companies and the 250,000 farmer suicides in India that have been the result of these policies.

When ten-year-old Martha Payne, walked on stage the audience went wild, so much so that she was almost overwhelmed. She started writing her blog ‘NeverSeconds’ when she was just nine years old and gained instant notoriety and started a school lunch revolution. Her Dad, a sheep farmer from Scotland delivered her presentation as she stood shyly by his side: beautiful powerful stuff. When her head mistress banned her from blogging, her farewell post got over 11,000 emails of support in response. Her chosen charity Mary’s Meals has raised over €74,000 for kids in African villages.And there was so much more...

It was a truly memorable event.

A blog at last, well almost!

I've been wanting to write a blog for years but simply couldn't seem to get started, a bit ridiculous considering I write a weekly column in the Weekend section in the Examiner. But it's even more bizarre than that because I never learned to type, all my books were written in my scrawly longhand and then typed by my unfortunate secretaries, corrected, retyped and on and on and on......

Consequently, I had a major block about any kind of technology but as I travelled particularly in the US I felt increasingly embarrassed to have to admit that I was a technophobe.

The ultimate proposterous situation occurred when I was scheduled to appear on Martha Stewart Kitchen, live. Her research team sent a list of questions to Sharon at the Cookery School, she forwarded them to my hotel who delivered the email to my bedroom. When I arrived back I tried to telephone the TV station, I could only get an answering machine, by this stage Sharon in Ireland had gone home for the day so I was going to have to wait for her come in next morning to dictate my answers for her to send to Martha Stewart, problem was it would be too late, I'd already be in the studio. Even I could see that this situation was beyond ridiculous - this was the turning point!

On my return I asked for an iPad for my birthday and the rest is history. It's been and still is a slow and painful process. At first a short email would take me at least 20 mins to do and then I would somehow manage to loose it and be totally traumatised by the experience. I felt like throwing my hat at it several times but then a pal suggested I type everything in Notes initially so I couldn't lose it - another big break through . I'm still very slow and still reach for the pen more often than my iPad but I'm working on it and this, my very first post marks another milestone for me.