You can meet Irish Times food columnist Paul Flynn in person – he might even be making your breakfast – if you book a mid-week Spring Break at his and his wife Máire's Tannery Restaurant, Townhouse and Cookery School in Dungarvan, Co Waterford. During February, March and April two nights B&B with one dinner is available for €160 per person. Reservations by email to bookings@tannery.ie or by telephoning 058-45420.
Have a Seasonal Supper
McHugh's bar in Ennis is launching a series of Seasonal Suppers, the first of which celebrates Co Clare's spring produce, on Thursday, March 5th. Head chef and local woman Claire Conway, who was previously at Aniar in Galway, has designed a four-course menu that features Meere's black pudding, Cratloe Hills sheep's cheese, Irish spring lamb, wild garlic and rhubarb.
Each course will have a complimentary wine pairing, included in the €45 ticket price. The McHugh family's Western Herd Brewing Company is also creating a once-off seasonal beer for the occasion, using gorse grown on their farm in Kilmaley.
Tickets can be booked by emailing info@westernherd.com, and summer, autumn and winter Seasonal Suppers will follow. McHugh’s bar also recently launched a new spring tapas menu.
Eat and enjoy a celebration of Laverty’s life
The wonderful food writer, agony aunt and broadcaster Maura Laverty is celebrated in a new play about her life that is being staged at The Grainstore at Ballymaloe in Co Cork on Friday, February 28th.
A pre-show dinner, inspired by recipes in her book, Full and Plenty, a copy of which was to be found in almost every Irish home in the 1960s, will be available at Ballymaloe House. Head chef Dervilla O’Flynn has designed a three-course menu that reflects Laverty’s seasonal, ingredient-driven, no-nonsense approach to cooking, such as winter salad of farm eggs, beetroot and lettuce with traditional dressing.
Tickets for the play, a Curious Ensemble production written by Yvonne Quinn and Bairbre Ní Chaoimh, starring Ní Chaoimh and Malachy McKenna and directed by Joan Sheehy, cost €22 (plus booking fee) and are available online from ballymaloegrainstore.com, or by telephoning 021-4757200.
The pre-show dinner, served at 6pm, costs €53 and there is a package including B&B accommodation, dinner and the show, for €185 per person. Both can only be booked by telephoning 021-4652531.
Cork’s Good Food Circle
Kinsale Restaurant Week runs from February 24th-March 1st, with a two-course menu for €22 on offer at the 11 restaurants in the town that are members of the Good Food Circle. Participating restaurants are Fishy Fishy, The Bulman, The White Lady, Finns' Table, The Blue Haven, Actons Hotel, Jim Edwards, The White House, Trident Hotel, The Supper Club and Man Friday.
The Good Food Circle, which was set up in 1976, now runs four food festivals in the town each year, with Veuve Clicquot Restaurant Week being followed by the Chowder Cook-Off in April, the Gourmet Festival in October and Kinsale Kids' Kitchen in November.
