Learn to cook a Michelin meal and boost your wellbeing

Health and wellbeing

The health issue of the Irish Times Magazine seems a good time to introduce UK beauty expert Liz Earle's first Wellbeing Yearbook, based on her quarterly magazine. There are recipes for healthy eating (Eat Well), beauty advice (Look Well) and home and craft ideas (Live Well), arranged seasonally and including plenty of insights into the author's personal preferences.

It is beautifully photographed at Earle’s organic farm in the UK’s West Country, where she lives with her husband and five children. Available online from lizearlewellbeing.com, £25 plus p&p.

Learn how to cook a Michelin-star meal

Martijin Kajuiter of House Restaurant at The Cliff House in Waterford is the first in a series of industry leaders who will be giving workshops and classes at Cliff Academy, the cookery school on the grounds of Village at Lyons in Co Kildare.

On Saturday, January 21st, Kajuiter will present “A Taste of Cliff”, a workshop running from 6pm-10pm at which participants will learn how to cook and present a three-course menu described as “Michelin-star worthy”. They’ll also get to eat it, and wines will be served with each course so the discounted overnight accommodation rates on offer might come in handy.

During 2017, Sean Smith, head chef at Cliff Townhouse, and Nathan Diamond, head chef at Lyons will be joined by guest chefs including Paul Kelly, executive pastry chef at The Merrion Hotel, for monthly workshops on topics including cooking lobster and shellfish, slow cooking, barbecuing, wild foods and game. Classes cost from €60-€150 per person, and more details are available at cliffatlyons.ie.

The Cliff Academy cookery school is also offering a City & Guilds level 2 diploma in culinary arts for those interested in pursuing a career in the kitchen. It will run on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays, 9am-5pm, for 20 weeks, beginning on January 30th. The cost is €4,950, to include uniform, knives and workbooks, and there will be a two-week placement at a five-star property on completion of the course. For details, see academy@cliffatlyons.ie, telephone: 01-6303500.

Good move Honest2Goodness

Paul Walsh, who previously ran the Black Pig, a Spanish food and wine shop in Donnybrook, Dublin 4, has joined the team at Honest2Goodness, the wine importers, farmers market organisers and food business in Dublin Industrial Estate, Glasnevin, Dublin 11. Walsh's new role will be in business development, identifying and sourcing new wines and food products for the market.

The enterprise is run by brother and sister Colm and Brid Carter, and in addition to its Saturday food markets, a monthly Sunday market launches on January 22nd. “This will be a family outing style market with a mix of food, wine and non-food elements to it,” Brid says. Stalls offering crafts, upcycling, collectables and vintage will be part of the monthly Sunday market, being run in collaboration with BespokeMarkets.

Guess who is in the kitchen?

Chef swaps are going to be a recurring theme throughout 2017, with Ross Lewis of Chapter One in Dublin lined up to take over the kitchen at Aniar in Galway on February 18th.

The head chefs at Mulranny Park hotel and Limerick Strand hotel, Chamila Mananwatta and Tom Flavin, will also play musical kitchens, with Mananwatta bringing a taste of Mayo to Limerick on February 3rd and 4th, and Walsh responding the following weekend.

The hotel swaps will include meet the chef and food producer sessions, cookery demonstrations, market visits and five-course dinners themed as Taste of Mayo and Taste of Limerick. Two-night residential packages are available, €169 per person, as well as an option of dinner only for €65. For details, and to book, see strandhotellimerick.ie