LitFest is This Weekend!

It’s crazily busy at Litfest HQ – the fifth Ballymaloe Litfest is on this weekend – 19th-21st May. 

This year we’ve changed the emphasis somewhat so the proper title is A Food and Drinks Literacy Festival at Ballymaloe. We’ve continued to build on the previous years events which have by now been written about from New York to Sydney, Los Angeles to Capetown with well over 35 nationalities attending.  They return to their own countries to spread the word of what’s happening on the Irish food scene and the fun and thought provoking events they attended at the Litfest. 

Sommelier Colm McCan has managed to assemble yet another world class line up in the Drinks Theatre. Isabelle Legeron M W, a London based wine writer and global crusader for the natural wine movement is coming along as well as many other luminaries from the spirit, craft beer and cider world. Garrett Fitzgerald and James Boland will discuss their book The Brother Hubbard Cookbook.  David Puttnam will be in conversation with John McKenna ‘Living, Working and Eating in West Cork’, Trish Deseine, Irish food writer and cookbook author will give her perspective on Irish food culture - also unmissable.

Brian McGinn Ex producer of Netflix and series Chef's Table will be in conversation with David Prior International Editor of Conde Nast Traveller, they’ll both be keeping their eyes open for stories.

The festival takes place at Ballymaloe House, Ballymaloe Cookery School, The Grain Store and the Big Shed. This year the humming Big Shed at the heart of the festival will once again be brimming with good things to eat and drink from some of Ireland’s finest artisan producers. There will be the sound of music ranging from the gentle during daylight hours to the more energetic when the sun goes down. Some of the weekend’s many free Fringe events will take place here and the Family Corner will ensure that festival goers of all ages will be kept happy and amused.

So what am I looking forward to at the Ballymaloe Cookery School? At last we’ve managed to tempt Clare Lattin and Tom Hill over from their restaurants in London’s Soho and Shoreditch to share some of their recipes. Readers of this column will know that Raw Duck and Duck Soup as two of my favourite London restaurants. Monika Linton from Brindisa who wrote the book I’ve been waiting for on Spanish food will teach a class on Saturday morning.

Then there’s Jacob Kennedy from Bocca di Lupo, back by ‘popular demand’ as is the beautiful and gracious Claudia Roden who will speak on both Saturdayand Sunday.

Generous as always, Sunil Ghai from Pickle in Dublin will share the secret to many of the dishes that have made Pickle award winning new restaurant so renowned.

But you may not yet have heard of Sumayya Usmani who’s really making waves with her Pakastani food. This is award winning author’s first appearance in Ireland – don’t miss it….

Charlotte Pike (former Ballymaloe Cookery School student) has already built up quite a following with her Fermented book but this time she will focus on her recently published book, Smoked and show us how to have fun at home, hot and cold smoking all manner of delicious foods.

Christian Puglisi of Relae, Manfred’s and Baest in Copenhagen can’t stay away. After his last trip to Ballymaloe he was so inspired by the farm, gardens and ethos that Mrs Allen had created that he is setting up the Farm of Ideas Project – he’ll tell us all about it on Sunday afternoon in The Carrigaun Room.

The Grain Store will host the symposium – a series of short talks and presentations on the theme - Our Responsibility. The BBC Radio 4 food program, Sheila Dillon and Dan Saladino are coming over from London to 

record from the Litfest.

Want to go foraging on the seashore with Alys Fowler, garden correspondent of the Guardian?  Or watch another of my food heroes, Margot Henderson of Rochelle Canteen will talk on the Joy of Cooking in the Grain Store on Saturday afternoon. 

The pretty Garden Tent nestled alongside the scented rosemary bed is now an established and exciting venue over the weekend and will have a full programme of free events to which all are welcome. John Bowman from RTE will be back with his Questions and Answers as will Jim Carroll with his banter series.

There simply isn’t nearly enough space to mention all of the 64 speakers or events so go and check it out on litfest.ie.

Some events are already booked out but there are still lots of opportunities, so come along it’s still not too late to book.  Maybe our biggest coup of all is Vytenis Andriukaitis who will speak in the Grain Store on Sunday ‘To Eat is a Political Statement’ and then there’s the Great Grocers and Joanna Blythman speaking on Nutrition – Really? and our own Professor Ted Dinan on Diet, Stress and Mental Health and even a session on Food from Space by astrophysicist Niall Smith – sure where would you get it!

And believe me all of the above is just a taste. Check it out, see you there and speaking of taste here’s what to come.

A Taste of Our Responsibility Symposium at LitFest 2017

Food issues regularly dominate headlines in the mainstream media. What we eat, its impact on our bodies and our environment and the global policies that dictate food production and trade are all hot topics. 

As you may remember, I shared a couple of months ago that we have shifted the focus of our annual Litfest from food literature to food literacy. There are many different definitions for food literacy. We define it as the following:

Food Literacy is about understanding where the food you eat comes from, who produces it and if it is good for you. Essentially it is about understanding the impact of your food choices on your health, the environment, and our economy.

At Litfest we aim to help everyone to have a greater understanding of our food and hope that we can empower people to make more well-informed food choices.

This year's topic for the Litfest symposium is Responsibility. We have spent the past year planning an open, frank discussion about how we can take responsibility for every part of the food cycle - from how we care for the soil, the culture of the kitchens its cooked it and caring for our health.

On 20-21st May, the Grainstore at Ballymaloe will be transformed into an exciting auditorium staging a thought-provoking and inspiring series of short talks and presentations from a dynamic pool of activists, chefs, farmers, experts and authorities from home and abroad.

The symposium is aimed at those who would like to know more - who may be feeling overwhelmed by the amount of contradictory information from so many sources. We want the good news stories to be told, hard questions to be asked and experiences shared... so that we all leave empowered and more well-informed to take responsible action in our lives, businesses and communities.

I wanted to take the opportunity to tell you a little more about some of the speakers we have lined up for this year's symposium.

Our opening session on Saturday morning - Farm of Ideas - is presented by Christian Puglisi and Kim Rossen from Denmark. They are co-owners of the Michelin-starred Relae, which is in the top 50 restaurants in the world and received a Sustainable Restaurant award in 2015 and 2016. Christian was a speaker at LitFest a couple of years back and was blown away by our farm and gardens here at Ballymaloe Cookery School and our farm to fork approach. This inspired him to rethink his restaurants and planted the seed of the Farm of Ideas: a farm where chefs can work, learn and develop new recipes. 

Image: Modern Farmer.com

Next up we have a number of young farmers talking about getting the approach to food production right for all parties. I first met Severine von Tscharner Fleming when she did the 12 week cookery course here about 10 years ago. Since then she has become the executive director of Green Horns, co-founder of National Young Farmers coalition, FarmHack and Agrarian Trust and a part-time farmer. We met her again at the Terra Madre conference in Italy last year and just knew we had to have her come and speak at LitFest - she is so passionate about food and production. 

As is one of her co-speakers, Alice Holden - daughter of Patrick Holden - founder of Soil Association who will share her experience of urban farming, having taken on a plot of land in Dagenham London from which she runs a popular veg box scheme.

They will be joined by Irish farmers who focus on biodiversity and feeding the soil.

Ellie Kisyombe will be talking about her experience as a refugee in Direct Provision and the cultural power of food. She speaks movingly about the importance of the right for displaced people to be able to cook and eat familiar food, both in terms of building strong family and community ties, but also as a way of sustaining links to the culture you have been pulled from. If you didn't get a chance to hear her speak at our recent Slow Food event, now's your chance to be inspired by her.

After lunch, journalist and food activist, Joanna Blythman, author of Swallow This: serving up the food industry's darkest secrets will be exploring how overwhelmed and bombarded we all are with the diversity of food labelling, and how supermarkets have cottoned on to clean eating - using buzz words on the front of the packaging - but packing it full of rubbish. 

Professor Ted Dinan from UCC will be giving a presentation on Diet, Stress and Mental Health. Ted is one of the leading voices and professionals studying the human micro-biome. His talk at last year's LitFest was electric and hugely well received, so we are delighted to welcome him back. 

And they're just some of Saturday's speakers - we also have celebrated cookery writer, Claudia Roden and David Prior international editor of Conde Naste Traveller magazine.

There will be scheduled question and answer sessions throughout the day, as well as short films, happenings and readings which connect into the speakers' presentations. Morning coffee break and afternoon tea are included in the ticket price. 

On Sunday we have Karen Leibowitz - co-owner of Mission Chinese in San Francisco, who after having her first child reassessed the cycle of commercialism and waste that she found herself a part of... and decided to lead by example to do something about it. Along with her partner she opened The Perennial, a completely self-sustaining restaurant, which has since won Best New Restaurant awards from Bon Appetit and GQ. At The Perennial they don't just compost and recycle their waste but use aquaponics for their fish and salad production and grow their own produce, championing Kernza, a new perennial grain far more sustainable than wheat. Karen talks about how restaurateurs should think about their food waste, energy use, and ingredients beyond simply seasonality.

Next are Ben Reade and Sashana Souza Zanella. Ben was previously head of the NOMA research lab, he has recently returned to his native Scotland where he founded the Edinburgh Food Studio, a restaurant and research hub, where he is exploring new ways to use indigenous ingredients. 

Michael Kelly, founder of GIY - Grow it Yourself - is a Litfest regular. You will get a chance to hear him speak about his experience of Building a Growing Food Movement.

After lunch Brian McGinn, executive producer and director of the Netflix hit, Chef's Table, will speak about on how and why he picks his subjects and his responsibility as a member of the media to tell the right stories.

Robin Gill from The Dairy, an Irish chef based in London, will speak about his personal experience of being bullied in professional kitchens, and questions the brutal alpha-male culture which dominates restaurant kitchens. Leading by example he runs his kitchens in a different way and speaks to us about the responsibility of chef, owner and boss to create a healthy emotional climate in which food is produced.

Our final presentation - To Eat is a Political Statement - is sure to fire you up and leave Litfest buzzing with motivation. It will address the idea that the food choices you make actually tells a lot about where your values lie. 

What an incredible weekend it will be - I do hope you'll join us.

How do tickets work at Litfest?

There's no such thing as a general entry ticket to all Litfest events because of the varying capacities of the multiple venues. Instead we have individually priced all main programme tickets so attendees can build their own festival weekend package. Tickets range from €5 - €97.

The symposium presentations in the Grainstore, at Ballymaloe will be broken into four sessions over the weekend - Saturday morning, Saturday afternoon, Sunday morning and Sunday afternoon. Tickets for the half-day sessions are €50 each or €90 for a full-day. A two-day weekend ticket is €170. 

Buy tickets now on the Litfest website.

There are dozens of other events including foraging walks with Alys Fowler, readings, panel discussions on all aspects of food and wine, book signings and cooking demonstrations with many renowned chefs. 

In addition to this we host a Fringe Festival with over 60 free events taking place within the grounds of the festival. The Fringe Festival gives you access to the fringe programme of free events that take place in The Big Shed, The Garden Tent, The Cully & Sully and GIY Veg About Area and The Book Shop. The entry fee is €5 each day for adults and children under 12 go free. The fringe programme will be released a little closer to the festival weekend.

Attendees who purchase any main programme event ticket or a symposium ticket will gain automatic access to the The Fringe Festival.

Do join us for the Welcome Party in The Big Shed which begins at 7pm on Friday 19th May. There is a €5 entry fee on arrival for this.

LitFest 2017 - Tickets on Sale Today

So here we are, 2017! Happy New Year!

Can you believe it, this year marks our fifth LitFest and we are delighted to announce that the festival is now officially called the Ballymaloe Food and Drinks Literacy Festival. 

It's still LitFest, but the ‘lit’ in the title now refers more generally to food and drinks literacy. There will be a little less about books and a lot more about the impact of our food choices on our health, our environment, our wellbeing, our economy. 

It runs Friday 19th to Sunday 21st May and tickets go on sale today.

The Grainstore will once again serve as an exciting auditorium becoming the symposium centre and the beating heart of the festival. Over the weekend, the symposium at Litfest 2017 will stage a thought-provoking and inspiring series of short talks and presentations from both the published and not yet published. Gathering an interesting and dynamic pool of professionals, writers, experts and authorities from at home and around the world, the festival will focus minds and thoughts on the question of responsibility – our responsibility as cooks and eaters.

The LitFest 2017 symposium is designed to spark imagination and generate discussion, prompting attendees to recognise their individual role as a crucial link in the food chain. Every time we cook something we have a responsibility – a responsibility to the people we are cooking for and the people who produced the food we are cooking. We have a responsibility to the environment and to the planet, and each choice, every action has its own impact. This crucial conversation, led by some of the most thought-provoking and dynamic writers and thinkers about food of our generation, will be passionate, factual and inspiring and is a must visit for all food-lovers to this year’s festival.

This year's speakers and guest chefs include:

• Brian McGinn, director of the Emmy-winning Netflix documentary series Chef’s Table
• Slovenian chef Ana Roš of Hiša Franko in Kobarid
• Jacob Kennedy, chef patron of Italian restaurants Bocca di Lupo in Soho and Vico 
• And making a welcome return visit to LitFest 2017 is Claudia Roden, beloved Middle Eastern cookbook writer and cultural anthropologist
• This year's pop up restaurants will be run by British chef, caterer, and cookery writer Margot Henderson and Dublin-born Robin Gill whose string of innovative and exciting London restaurants – The Dairy, The Manor and Paradise Garage – has made him one of the hottest chefs in London

Tickets go on sale today, so be sure to head on over to the website right now, as many sell out within hours. The full schedule of participants and events  www.litfest.ie

Honey & Co.

We’ve christened Itamar and Sarit from Honey & Co., the Honeys, because they are just that.

We had them here at Ballymaloe Cookery School a couple of  weekends ago (after their extremely popular session at this year's Litfest).

It’s a bountiful time in the farm and in the gardens. Itamar and Sarit were so excited by the quality of the beautiful fresh produce. We had lots of fresh peas, courgettes and their flowers, broad beans and the first tiny cucumbers. A joy to eat and cook with.

They taught two classes and charmed the audience with their easy manner and utterly delicious food. They cooked many of the favourite Middle Eastern dishes from Honey & Co., their tiny restaurant in Warren Street in Fitzrovia. It seats just 24 people and snugly at that but serves about 150 who come for breakfast, lunch and dinner from 8.00am-10.30pm.

Sarit Packer has been cooking and baking since she was five, trained at Butlers Wharf and at the Orrery under Chris Galvin, where she learned, amongst other things, to make pâte de fruits, which up to then was her sole ambition in life. In her spare time she sleeps. Itamar Srulovich born and raised in Jerusalem. Cooking since the  age of five and leaving a great mess  in the kitchen ever since, he trained on the job in various places in Tel-Aviv. He prefers eating to cooking, and sleeping to both, he is very happily married to Sarit.

Sarit tells us that “what we’re about is homemade flavours” and it just struck me that so many of the restaurants that people love nowadays in particular in London and New York are about homemade flavours. Theirs of course are Middle Eastern and there are some dishes that they simply can’t take off the menu including falafel and their cherry pistachio cake. The Observer Food magazine awarded Honey & Co. "Best Newcomer of the Year" in 2013.

They have just celebrated their third anniversary so Pam baked them a gorgeous three tier cake embellished with roses, raspberries and spun sugar.

Somehow in the midst of it all they wrote their first cookbook - Honey & Co.: Food From the Middle East which was published by Salt Yard Book Co in 2014 to huge acclaim. Both Sunday Times and Fortnum and Mason awarded Honey & Co. Cookbook of the Year 2015 and just last month they won the UK Food Writers Guild, First Cookbook Award.

Their second cookbook launched just last week - Honey & Co.: The Baking Book.

Post LitFest High

We’re all still on a high from the Litfest. Apart from all the antics and stimulating talks, forums and panel discussions in the Grain Store and Big Shed, there was also a packed schedule at the Ballymaloe Cookery School with three and sometimes four events running simultaneously. We are overjoyed and beyond honored  to find ourselves on the Conde Nast Traveller list for The Best Festivals Around the World !

 Having invited many more of my food heroes to Ballymaloe, I had exactly had the same frustrations this year as before... I simply couldn’t get to many of the concurrent events but did get fantastic feedback. 

I want to take a moment to share some of my personal highlights. 

Allegra McEvedy has a cult following for her wholesome and gutsy food and her irreverent style further endears her to her fans. She gave a cookery demonstration of some of her best loved dishes.  The response to her delicious food was overwhelmingly delightful.

Arun Kapil told the fascinating story of Green Saffron and his book Fresh Spice in a packed Blue Dining room. A little while later multi award winning, Kevin Thornton spoke to a rapt audience about his travels in Ethiopia – the photographs in his book all styled and taken by Kevin himself showed another hugely creative side of this enormously talented chef.

Still staying with our Irish stars, Hugo Arnold and Leylie Hayes of Avoca gave a riveting three hour cookery demonstration of some of the iconic dishes that has made Avoca such a huge success. 

Later Jack Monroe, who shot to fame a number of years ago when she started a blog ‘A Girl called Jack’ on feeding herself and her son on £10 sterling a week. This was an interactive cookery demonstration where people could bring a child along free of charge.  Jack’s writing style is chatty and entertaining. Her food brilliantly creative and delicious, illustrates how well you can eat on a miniscule budget when one have the cooking skills to transform a few inexpensive ingredients into a yummy meal.

That's just a little taster of what was on this year. We hope you had a ball! 

With massive thanks to all our sponsors for their support...Kerrygold, Neff, Sodexo, Failte Ireland, Irish Distillers Pernod Ricard, Ballymaloe Country relish, Bord Bia, Tourism Ireland and Cully and Sully. 

Big Fun at the Big Shed

The Kerrygold Ballymaloe Literary Festival of Food and Wine is nearly here... it's now just ten days away. So I wanted to take a moment to give you a taste of what's planned.

You're Invited!

Join us for the LitFest Opening Party from 7.30pm in The Big Shed - there'll be live music, food and drink stalls and great craic. And it's FREE!

Image: @gracebeforemeal on Twitter

The Fringe Festival 

The Fringe Festival in The Big Shed has exploded this year- there's so much on offer over the weekend - free workshops, talks, delicious food stalls, crafts and funky music. 

Entry into the festival this year is €5 per person per day. Children under 12 go free. This will include access to The Big Shed and the fringe programme that will be jam-packed with child friendly activities, crafts, art, music, food, conversation and fun. Anyone who has purchased tickets to any event has free entry. You will be able to pick up your festival entry pass at the Welcome Area on the weekend.

This is just some of what's on offer at the Fringe Festival

• In the Big Shed we have demonstrations all day including: Ballymaloe classic techniques, seed saving, fermentation, microbreweries, making mozzarella...
• In the Kerrygold Corner there will be cookery demos all day celebrating butter.

• In the Family Area you can do arts and crafts, bake cookies, play games...
• Get your cookery books signed by your food heroes – and bump into others as you stroll around the food, drink and craft stalls.
• Hang out with your friends at our long tables, bean bags and sofas soak up the atmosphere… and make new friends, whilst enjoying a selection of great food and drinks.
• Dance the night away to our DJs and live music.

• Take a guided tour or a leisurely walk around the gardens at Ballymaloe House… or Cookery School. 
• Enjoy readings and rants in the garden tent.
• Join Grow it Yourself and Cully and Sully with demos a plenty to inform and inspire.
• Visit the stunning photography exhibition in the Grain Store.
• Plant a seed in the glasshouses at Ballymaloe Cookery School -where workshops run every 1/2 hour.

See the full schedule of Fringe events here.

On a practical note: 

• Shuttle buses will be in operation between Ballymaloe House & Ballymaloe Cookery School throughout the weekend from 09.00 - 19.30
• Food stalls run from 10am-10pm on the Saturday and Sunday.

Want tickets? 

If you're wanting to attend an event, there are still places on some cookery demonstrations, talks and workshops - check the website as they're selling fast. LitFest.ie

Stop Press...

In our festival brochure there was a misprint - oops! - April Bloomfield's cookery demo is listed as running from 11-12 but it's actually from 9.30-12!... April's just brought out a new book, Eat Your Greens which is taking New York by storm. At last vegetables are moving to the centre of the dinner plate and April is at the forefront of this - so this is an opportunity not to be missed.

And the winners are...

Thanks so much for all your entries to our LitFest giveaway. It was great to hear who you'd love to see at LitFest in future... we'll see what we can do! To those of you who didn't win, I really hope you will still make it to the festival. It's going to be so much fun.

So back to business, the competition winners are... Sharon Dowdall and Claire Crowley.

Sharon and Claire, please do contact the Cookery School to claim your prizes. 021 4646785

Win Tickets for LitFest

It's nearly LitFest time again. I've shared some highlights of the event so far - the NewYork and Dublin launches, and the wonderful chefs we have giving demonstrations at the event. This year it's on the weekend of May 15th-17th. We'd love to see you there. Today I have two pairs of tickets to give away... so be sure to read on for HOW TO WIN

Once again we will be welcoming some of the world's biggest names in food and drinks to Ballymaloe House and Ballymaloe Cookery School, to share their knowledge and passion with you. 

We have discussions, readings, workshops, as well as cookery demonstrations galore. This year's giants of food and drinks literature attending include: Alice Waters, David Lebovitz, Jancis Robinson, Sam and Sam Clark, Allegra McEvedy, April Bloomfield, John and Sally McKenna, Roger Phillips, Fuchsia Dunlop, A Girl Called Jack, Hugo Arnold, Tom Doorley, Christian Puglisi, Joanna Blythman, Rachel Allen....

And that's just the beginning. With over fifty speakers from home and abroad touching on all aspects of food and drinks, as well as our Big Shed Fringe event, it promises to be a weekend to savour.

For a full listing of events, and to book, check out the Litfest.ie website.

GIVEAWAY

We are giving away two pairs of tickets to see Jack Monroe, blogger, Guardian columnist and author from the hit blog A Girl Called Jack. 

She will be demonstrating recipes from her blog and bestselling book. This will be an interactive event, so each prize winner is invited to bring along one of the younger members of the household (8-12 years of age) to attend the demonstration for free, and they will have the opportunity to join her at the demonstration counter for practical cooking fun (if they would like!)

HOW TO WIN... Just tell us in the comments below which food hero you'd most like to meet in real life!

ENTRY RULES:

1) Winners must be free to attend the LitFest event May 17th, 2-5.30 pm.

2) Entries close midnight (IST) Thursday April 30th.
Winners will be announced here on the blog on FRIDAY 1ST MAY. Winners must make contact with us by phone or email before May 5th to secure their tickets.

Lit Fest - Dublin Launch

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. 

Culinary Superstars at LitFest 2015

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!