Sharpen your knife skills
It will be cleavers to the ready at Chapel Steps restaurant in Bandon, Co Cork on Tuesday, May 13th when craft butcher Eoin O'Mahony of Cork's English Market and local butcher Dan Maloney join chef Kevin O'Regan for a butchery class aimed at home cooks.

The morning session will be devoted to the forequarter of West Cork Angus beef while the evening session will focus the hindquarter. The class is limited to 15 participants and will be hands-on, so be prepared to roll up your sleeves. It's very good value at €100 for both sessions, including breakfast, lunch and dinner, with wine. The morning session (9.30am-3pm, €60) and evening session (6pm-10pm, €50) can be booked separately. To book, tel: 023-8852581 or see chapelsteps.ie.

Eggstravaganza
If you're planning on some last-minute chocolate for tomorrow, this Tesco Finest Medley of Belgian Chocolate Easter Eggs would be a lovely choice. There's a full kilo of chocolate in five different layers around a golden egg – milk chocolate with roasted coconut, milk with hazelnut, dark with butterscotch, intense dark, and white with dried raspberries. The egg is made for Tesco by Lir Chocolate in Co Meath and it came out top in Good Housekeeping magazine's Easter egg taste test. It is available in selected Tesco stores (€30).

Brunch bunch
The Easter brunch at the Four Seasons hotel in Ballsbridge, Dublin 4 tomorrow will feature an Easter egg-decorating station – aimed at children obviously, but there are sure to be a few adults who won't be able to resist getting stuck in with the handmade eggs, sweets, jellies and icing. Chef Alberto Rossi will be on hand to assist budding chocolatiers. Easter brunch costs €59 (children €25). Bookings taken on 01-665 4000.

Pots of Flavour
If I hadn't seen chef and lecturer Tom Meaney cook up a variety of dishes using these new Flavour Pots from Knorr, I wouldn't have believed he could get such complex flavours from so few ingredients. "Of course, fresh is best," the professional cookery lecturer at IT Tallaght said candidly. But these store cupboard stand-ins performed extremely well in a series of dishes including garlic prawns, steak with three peppercorn sauce, tomato bruschetta and chicken korma. There are five flavours – garlic, mixed herbs, three peppercorn, mixed chillies and curry. They're in shops now, priced €2.29, with recipes attached to each pack of four.

mcdigby@irishtimes.com

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