Fun for foodies

THE SOCIAL NETWORK:Derry Clarke stopped eating potatoes and white bread last September. The Michelin-starred chef was looking slim at the launch of Taste of Dublin at his restaurant, L'Ecrivain, on Thursday.

This year’s festival runs from June 14th to 17th in the Iveagh Gardens, in Dublin. Clarke was in good form, saying that the Government’s reduction of VAT to 9 per cent had been “a massive saviour” to the restaurant sector.

The director of Taste of Dublin, Rachel Kelly, told me she was looking forward to Jamie Oliver opening this year’s festival. She has also invited five recently opened restaurants – Brasserie le Pont, Isabel’s Restaurant and Wine Bar, 777 Restaurant, the Green Hen and Matt the Thresher – to display their wares.

Ross Lewis of Chapter One restaurant opened an Irish food fair at Selfridges in London last week. Irish artisan produce is on show at the Oxford Street store. “Both Galen Weston, who owns the store, and Paul Kelly, who runs it, are great for Irish suppliers,” Lewis said.

Oliver Dunne from Bon Appétit in Malahide, Co Dublin, is running a new bovine menu in his restaurant that includes six breeds of beef, among them Japanese wagyu. “It’s grade 9 wagyu, which is the highest grade you can buy in the world outside Japan,” he said. It’s a steep €140 per kilo, but Dunne sells it at cost price – €49 – to his customers.

Clodagh McKenna said she has a TV series called Clodagh’s Irish Food Trail launching in the US soon. She is also opening a French-style bistro in Arnotts.

Meanwhile, Catherine Fulvio of Ballyknocken Cookery School, in Wicklow, is about to finish her third cookbook. She has also just become food writer for Prima magazine in the UK.