Here at the Ballymaloe Cookery School LitFest HQ is
hopping. There's just one month until the third Kerrygold Ballymaloe Literary Festival of Food and Wine kicks off. Becks, Rory and Evelyn are working away behind the scenes like
whirling dervishes. We've had lots of great publicity - including a five page
spread in the Wall Street Journal magazine which has had a terrific reaction.
I just want to take a moment to
flag up the culinary superstars giving cookery demonstrations during the LitFest this year. How about this for a line-up? April Bloomfield, Sam and Sam Clark of Moro, Allegra McEvedy, Fuchsia Dunlop, A Girl Called Jack, Hugo Arnold & Leylie Hayes of Avoca Cafe and Christian Puglisi. A once in a life-time opportunity perhaps to learn from some more of my favourite chefs and cooks... and taste their food.
What to do? I've just had someone on the phone who wanted to book onto all seven, but could only choose two. An unbearable choice! So here's a little
background on each one - and there's lots more information on the LitFest.ie website. Tickets are selling out fast, with a bare handful of places left on some... so don't say I didn't warn you!
April Bloomfield is considered by many to be the best woman chef in America and this is a rare opportunity to see her cook.
April burst on to the New York culinary scene with her cooking at The Spotted Pig gastro-pub in the West Village. Her food is a fusion of the
comforting food she remembers from her childhood in Birmingham in England and
the Italian influences she picked up cooking at the River Café in London and
further influences gleaned at Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California.
You can expect fabulous, seasonal, stylish, cool and above all, delicious food from the “queen” of New York cooking.
Sam & Sam Clark of 'Moro'
Moro and Morito have a cult following: cool, convivial, trendy surroundings with an atmosphere “that hits you like a wall of joy”. Then of course there is the food with a deliciousness that can only have been created by cooks who love the straight between the two eyes approach to flavour. Lucky for us that the two Sams took off in a camper van before opening Moro, to explore and learn the secrets to the true flavour of the great foods of Spain, Morocco and the Sahara.
Allegra McEvedy, described by The Independent as "a caterer with conscience" is a chef and author of six books and number of television programs. Allegra has won a whole host of loyal fans for her fresh, quirky dishes made with the freshest, ethically sourced produce - all with a twist. The co-founder of the Leon restaurant group, she has worked in many of London’s
best restaurants: Green’s Restaurant & Oyster Bar, The Belvedere in Holland
Park, The Groucho Club and The River Café. She got her first Head Chef position
at Tom Conran’s The Cow in Notting Hill, at the age of 24.
Expect a hugely entertaining as well as informative class, with delicious tastings at the end.
Fuchsia
Dunlop has been described by the Sunday Telegraph as “the best writer in the
west on Chinese food” and by Observer Food Monthly as “a world authority on
Chinese cooking”.
The London Independent ranked her alongside the great literary food writers
Elizabeth David and Claudia Roden and Heston Blumenthal.
This is a unique opportunity to watch, listen, learn and taste some of the
foods of China from one of the world’s greatest experts on the subject.
Leylie
Hayes & Hugo Arnold
Devotees
of the Avoca Cafés will know that apart from the wonderful interiors that
await, the next and immediate visual experience is the generous array
of colourful food – bejewelled salads of all descriptions, savoury tarts,
luscious soups packed with exotic ingredients, relishes, great baskets
overflowing with breads, cakes, buns, bracks, ices, sweet tarts, meringues and
so much more.
Leylie
and Hugo will recreate some of that magic during this demonstration. Expect the
sort of generous, modern, stylish, health giving food that has kept the Avoca Cafés rocking with very happy and well fed customers for the last three
decades.
Jack
Monroe
Jack is
“a breath of fresh air in the cooking world” – so said Nigel
Slater and I quite agree.
Jack started writing her blog, A Girl Called Jack, in February 2012, in
response to a local councillor who claimed that ‘druggies, drunks and single
mums are ruining the High Street.’ What started as a local politics blog developed
into budget food and recipes, which were picked up with interest by the
national press as she detailed living with her son on a food budget of just £10
a week.
She will demonstrate recipes that were recorded on her blog and subsequently
in her book also called A Girl Called Jack.
This will be an interactive event, so parents are invited to bring along one of
the younger members of the household (8-12 years of age) to attend the
demonstration for free and Jack will call on some of the enthusiastic juniors
to join her at the demonstration counter for practical cooking fun (if they would like!)
Christian Puglisi
Copenhagen
has been the "go to" city in the world for the last few years for those in search
of the most interesting, cutting edge and forward thinking food. The Nordic
Food Revolution is now well documented and Christian Puglisi has been part of
that movement of chefs who have made the whole world sit up and listen and look
on in awe as they created a new style of cooking that can leave the diner
breathless by the sheer wizardry of their creations.
From
this cookery demonstration you can expect sensational dishes created by one of
the new masters of world cuisine – dishes that will make you look again at food
in a way that you may not have done for a long time. Don't miss this!
No doubt, like you too, we were desperate to do something to help in some way so Rory, Rachel and I did an online cookery demonstration and raised over €13,000 for the Irish Red Cross Ukraine Appeal. One of our students, Grainne O’Higgins baked brownies, invited people to help themselves and perhaps donate – her little project raised €128.00. Tessa Lomas who has spent many years on the south coast of Sri Lanka showed her fellow students how to make Sri Lankan roti filled with curried mince or cheese and tomato as well as tasty hoppers and several sambals. They were all super delicious and once again raised just over €200 for the Irish Red Cross. 
