Celebrating Local Culinary Talent

Super excited to have three new Michelin Star restaurants in County Cork, The Mews in Baltimore, West Cork under Chef Ahmet Dede, Ichigo Ichie in Cork City owned by Chef Takashi Miyazaki and Chestnut in Ballydehob with Chef Rob Krawczyk (a Ballymaloe Cookery School alumni). It focuses attention on the culinary scene outside the capital and hugely boosts the confidence of the many young chefs who are working tirelessly to raise standards in a time of tiny profit margins on food.

In the midst of all the euphoria came the budget and the reintroduction of the 13.5% VAT rate on restaurants, a whopping 4.5% increase from the 9% rate that enabled many, but not all to survive the recession. The hotel and restaurant scene in the capital is booming and profitable overall. The food scene in most of rural Ireland is quite a different scenario, the tourist season can be as short as 10-12 weeks. Many restaurants are just beginning to recover, from the crippling recession, starting to reinvest and were hoping to start a ‘rainy day fund’ to prepare for the inevitable next downturn which may not be too far away…

It’s all very disheartening… To maintain standards, continue to pay staff and local food producers, prices will have to increase significantly to enable restaurants to even stand still – a 2% increase was anticipated – 4.5% has totally knocked the ‘wind out of the sails’ of an industry that does so much to create employment, put Ireland on the global food map and boost tourism. I’m truly saddened and apprehensive – this can only result in dumbing down of standards, loss of jobs and closures - I so hope I’m wrong…

But to end on a positive I want to give a shout out to the recently published Currabinny Cookbook by super enthusiastic young foodies James Kavanagh and William Murray (ex Ballymaloe Cookery School student). The book exudes a love of food and their mission to encourage other cool young people like themselves (they have a huge fan base on social media), to discover the joy and larks to be had around the kitchen stove, doing pop-ups, selling at Farmers Markets and sharing the yummy food they’ve cooked with friends.

Urgent Action Required By All Food Lovers

Have you heard of the TTIP (Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership)? I know I hadn't until a couple of days ago, when I found out about it via the Slow Food Movement. It's MAJOR, and it matters to you and me right now. 

It is a proposal which seeks to standardise systems and standards of food production between the EU and US. 

On the surface it sounds a little dull. But look a little closer, and you'll see why it matters to us all. I am deeply uneasy about the proposals and their implications.

The TTIP has massive, potentially cataclysmic repercussions for food producers and consumers not only in Ireland but throughout Europe. 

Here are some of the impacts it will have:

• Currently chemicals and pesticides in the EU must be proven safe for animals and humans prior to use. In the USA the opposite is the case, and many cancer-causing and hormone- disrupting chemicals are used there, which are banned in Europe. We would no longer be able to ban these chemicals.
• Higher European safety measures throughout the chain of food production, including meat production, would be down-graded to US levels which are less stringent.
• The US factory food system produces food at a lower cost, with more chemical inputs and higher capital costs of production than in Europe. 
• In the US, growth-hormone-injected beef is cheaper to produce - but is lower quality with associated human and animal health implications. Current restrictions on the sale of unlabelled hormone-injected beef and GMO products would be lifted. Consumers will no longer know exactly what they are buying... or eating.
• And perhaps most worrying is a new legal system will be established for foreign investors, so that they can bypass the Irish, European and American judicial systems if they feel their current - or future - profits are threatened by "unnecessarily restrictive barriers to trade". This would include everything from what constitutes organic food standards, to correct food allergy labelling.

All these changes put profit before food quality. And the interests of mass-production and corporations above those of the people eating it. It will see food information for consumers weakened, and smaller, local producers further marginalised. According to Slow Food: "the controversial trade deal could give unprecedented power to international corporations and thus threatens to overrule democracy and the rule of law, as well as environmental and consumer protection."

Did you know that this was proposed? I certainly didn't. If this worries you too, do take time to raise your voice against it. Take a moment to sign the online petitions to stop TTIP. This one has already cleared the necessary million signatures to enable it to be formally presented for consideration by the EU but a million or two more signatures couldn’t hurt, so that our legislators know just how important an issue this is!

There is a global day of action this Saturday, 18th April, with workshops, protests and networking events.

GLOBAL DETAILS: https://www.globaltradeday.org/   
IRELAND DETAILS:http://ttip.ie/act-now/

On Twitter: @TTIPInfoNetwork     

Want to know more? https://stop-ttip.org/