Food File: The weekly food news round-up

Weekend of foodie festivities
Thomas Haughton, who was the launch chef for Harvey Nichols when it came to Dublin and has also worked at the K Club and the Westbury, now heads the food development team at Galmere, a Galway company that makes salads, soups, dips and sauces for retailers in Ireland, the UK and France.

Galmere is now making fresh green and red pesto for Tesco’s Irish stores, and although not made with extra virgin olive oil and Parmesan, (rapeseed and pomace oils and regato cheese are used instead), the price point of €1.99 for a tub is good. The red variety, made with red pepper and sundried tomatoes, is the winner.

If Electric Picnic's Theatre of Food has given you an appetite for eating and drinking in the great outdoors while having the banter about hot food topics, three festivals happening next weekend are worth checking out: Waterford Harvest Festival, GIY Grow, and the inaugural Airfield Estate Food Festival at the urban farm in Dundrum, Dublin.

Waterford plays host to both its Harvest Festival and the GIY celebrations (September 11th-13th), with cookery demos, talks, food markets, street food, and special menus served in two marquees in the town.

Food writers Joanna Blythman, Alys Fowler and Mark Diacono headline the GIY festival – don't miss Blythman talking about hospital food with RTÉ's Ella McSweeney, Darina Allen and Prof Donal O'Shea on Saturday afternoon.

The GIY HQ kitchen will host cookery demos by Darina Allen, Rory O'Connell and Lilly Higgins, and there will be a market feast at the Grow marquee on Saturday night using produce from GIY's head grower Dermot Carey, cooked by local restaurant Momo.

The Eat Waterford marquee on the Mall will be serving a five-course tasting menu with six sittings, at 7pm on Friday; 1-5pm and 8.30pm on Saturday; and 2-4.30pm on Sunday. Chefs from Zak's restaurant, La Boheme, L'Atmosphere, Loko and Bellissimo are collaborating on this, and tickets are €35. For programme information, see waterfordharvestfestival.com and giyinternational.org/grow_fest.

An ambitious programme for the first Airfield Estate Food Festival kicks off on Friday night with dinner at Overends restaurant, and a chance to have a sneak preview of the Hibernia food market, three giant marquees showcasing Irish produce, including the intriguing salt-moss-aged beef from Kettyle Irish Foods.

The weekend's activities include talks by Gearoid Carvill of the Dublin Honey Project and Iseult Ward from Foodcloud, foraging workshops with Geraldine Kavanagh of Wicklow Wild Foods, craft brewing with Chris Gabmastasi, a chill-out zone and pop-up book store, and a tent in the Fairy Field housing a collection of 30 artisan food producers.

As always with Airfield, there'll be lots of child-friendly activities including scarecrow building, a milk bar, ice cream making and welly planting. See airfield.ie

Thomas Haughton, who was the launch chef for Harvey Nichols when it came to Dublin and has also worked at the K Club and the Westbury, now heads the food development team at Galmere, a Galway company that makes salads, soups, dips and sauces for retailers in Ireland, the UK and France.

Galmere's deliciously priced pesto

Galmere is now making fresh green and red pesto for Tesco’s Irish stores, and although not made with extra virgin olive oil and Parmesan, (rapeseed and pomace oils and regato cheese are used instead), the price point of ¤1.99 for a tub is good. The red variety, made with red pepper and sundried tomatoes, is the winner.