Restaurant Awards

There are a few restaurants and food awards available and Santa Rita/LIFE Magazine's award is now in its 3rd year. To nominate a restaurant/chef/food producer you will have to by the Sunday Independent to get the nomination form from the LIFE magazine (you also get a voucher for 20% off from participating restaurants). Only members of the restaurant association are able to vote online so you will have to buy the newspaper.

The nomination period for The Irish Restaurant Awards 2011 opened Sunday 6th February. You still have until the 25th February to get your nomination in. Don't miss your chance to nominate , the second week's nomination form will be published in the Sunday Independent on the 13th, 20th February 2011.

This year’s event will recognize achievement and excellence in the Restaurant and Hospitality Industry throughout the Island of Ireland in 22 categories. The awards celebrate all aspects of the Industry from Chefs and Restaurants to Food Producers, Local Food Heroes and Cookery Schools. It is a detailed and thorough process whereby nominated Restaurants face rigorous scrutiny from the Consumer, Regional Judges, a Mystery Guest Visitor and finally the National Awards Academy.

County winners are announced at a number of Regional Events in the run up to the Main Event on the 25th May in the Burlington Hotel Dublin. Guests at the main event are treated to a five course menu prepared by the winning Chefs in each of the five regions from the year before. Tockets for the events can be booked here

New Food Magazine

Okay, Jamie got one, Rick Stein got one (at least a Christmas edition) and now Clodagh McKenna got one - her own magazine. The launch issue is just out and of course I had a peak. The magazine is called Homemade and it is not just about cooking but also entertaining - how to dress a table, how to make personalised place settings, thrifty homemade chic etc.

Clodagh has recently returned to Ireland after a long stay in Italy (and who could blame her - I love Italy) and is dead busy with cooking demos etc. The magazine has a personal feel to it and I actually like it. Since Clodagh has her roots in Cork, we have finally lots of info about our region rather then being concentrated on Dublin all the time. She also writes about places she visited while in Italy - so a good read if you are planning your next vacation there. Lots of info on suppliers and of course, recipes. The party planner is handy for those you usually panic a week beforehand :-)

The price is €3.95 which isn't too bad. There will be 6 issues per year and I hinting already that this might be a nice 'stocking filler' for me :-)

Mitchelstown Food Festival

I finally made it to Mitchelstown on Sunday. Unfortunately I missed the real interesting stuff but I went to see the producer market in the Business Park. Rain was just pouring out of the sky but very clever people decided to have the market indoors. What a buzz...lots of stall - just a note: if you are planning to go into food business, baking is covered for the load, every second stall was bakery - music was playing in the background, kids had a play area and you didn't even hear the rain outside. Gwen's Chocolate sold their amazing chocs and cookies, Liz (who won the cupcake competition during the Midsummer Festival) had a wonderful display of her cupcakes - she has a collection of wonderful old cakestands), lovely cheese stalls were calling out to me. I also got some lovely relish.....yummmmmmmmm. All in all it was a great way to spend a Sunday.

I went then to Dublin Airport to pick up Wendy and had some time to kill. So I scooped up a new magazine called 'Eat In' - not really new but I haven't come across it yet. Nothing new on the recipes either - especially since Jamie Oliver published exactly the same recipe of is new cookbook (something American this time) in this month Delicious issue......so I will be happy enough not to buy it again...

What to do now?

Finally I am calming down a bit from the buzz of the Grow.Bake.Cook competition (although my head is still spinning on where to take the event from here), so I am sitting here at my desk in my office/craftroom/thinktank etc. and read through the latest edition of Food & Wine. I am not a regular reader of the magazine (one reason, that most articles are based on Dublin places/events). But my good friend Dianne is a food writer with them and she reviewed An Cruibin (we visited together but my 'review' was 'published' earlier on the blog). Wish my writing was as 'floral' as Dianne's.

Apart from the old favourites like Blueberry Muffin, Ratatouille and Stuffed Peppers (yawn yawn) they also published some nice recipes - one being from Padraic Hayden from the Dylan Hotel. Roasted Halibut Filet with Poached Langoustine, wild asparagus, girolles and Bouillabaisse Broth. The Photo alone is edible. Only problem I see is where to get the wild asparagus.

The interview with Derry Clarke is quite interesting and at least he got his signature dish in there as well; Deep Fried Dublin Bay Prawns in Ketaifi Pastry (its a Middle Eastern pastry made with shredded filo pastry). That might be worth a try.

On the other hand, they have some really nice cocktail recipes in this edition like French Liberte (with vodka, ginger liqueur and lemongrass syrup) and the Les Folies de Napoleon (vodka, cream, raspberries)...as we are planning a cocktail party (girls only again), these little gems might make their way to the party.

But last but not least, Food & Wine are hosting the Restaurant of the Year award. Which is a nice touch but the closing date for the awards was 30th June.......hmmmmm, the editor might have his calendar ready next time when he proof reads the pages....(since this is the July/August edition)

But one thing I really love about this magazine, it is Irish. Irish Producers are introduced and Irish chefs are reviewed......a bit more Cork would be nice tho.....don't forget we are supposed to the be culinary capital of Ireland....

Jamie Oliver got his own magazine

...and guess what...it is a food magazine. Is it better than the ones I normally have?? Nope it isn't. This magazine celebrates itself and good old Jamie. He has also his own mail order service installed so that you can re-create all the dishes. You can buy infused sea salt (£3.50 for 250g) to cook the Fish baked in sea salt (and you only need 1kg of the salt).

I believe it is meant to be a very personal magazine but for my taste it is a bit OTT. Saying that, there are some serious good recipes in there and he includes close friends in his story. If you are a Jamie Oliver fan than this magazine is for you. Otherwise is it still a nice read.

So far I haven't seen it in Cork (I got it in Terminal 1 in Heathrow for £3.95) but I am sure that can only be a matter of time before it jumps up on Irish shelves.