Compiled by MARIE-CLAIRE DIGBY
All about the beef
“It’s ironic, but in order to save rare beef breeds from extinction, we need to eat them,” says chef Oliver Dunne (left) of Bon Appétit and La Brasserie in Malahide, Co Dublin. Every fortnight in the brasserie he will offer up to 12 cuts of a selected breed of beef, beginning on March 13th with Aberdeen Angus, and moving on to Longhorn, Hereford, Dexter and the less well known Irish Moiled. The beef is being sourced by Maurice Kettyle of Kettyle Irish Foods. There will be a choice of 13 accompanying sauces, including an intriguing duck fat hollandaise, and 16 side dishes, some you’d expect, such as pot roasted shallots, and others a bit more left field such as bone marrow fritters and tempura of pickles and mushrooms.
See bonappetit.ie, tel: 01-8450314.
A very select club
The cookery book suppers in the new private dining room at Kai cafe and restaurant in Galway are among the hottest tickets in circulation at the moment. There are just 14 seats at the communal table for the monthly events and at the time of writing there were still a few places left for the March 13th event, when chef proprietor Jess Murphy will cook dishes from The Art of Simple Foodby Alive Waters. Last month's featured book was Fergus Henderson's Nose to Tail, and the six-course feast featured a salad made with pigs head that had been soaked in whisky for six days prior to cooking, and a free-range ham cooked in hay.
In April, Murphy, who runs Kai with her husband David, will cook from Denis Cotter's latest book, For The Love of Food. The cookbook evenings cost €35 including dinner, a glass of wine, and the chance to speak to Jess Murphy and her sous chef, New Yorker Ashley Weidimear, about why they chose the book – the selections are made on the basis of books that have inspired them in their careers. The private dining room at Kai can be booked for dinner with no additional charge. Tel: 091-526003 or see kaicaferestaurant.com.
the buzz
Tim Hayward @timhayward: I love the ampersand in our menu typeface and have been using replace to insert it. Have now run a month listing wines from New Zeal”
Adam Rapoport @rapo4: Can we all just agree that panko wins, and we pull all the other breadcrumbs off the shelves?
Paolo Tullio @paolotullio: Had a good meal last week in Bay above Walters in Dun Laoghaire. Until the end of March you pay 50% of the food bill. Great value.
BOOK OF THE WEEK
'The Intolerant Gourmet'by Pippa Kendrick, published by Collins (£20/€22)
With ever more people not eating certain foods – wheat and dairy being the main culprits – it’s interesting to come across a stylish new cookery book specifically geared to cooking without wheat, gluten, yeast, eggs, dairy and soya. The Intolerant Gourmet is much more about celebrating a rich and varied diet than it is about bemoaning missing ingredients. Baking can be a minefield for those with dietary restrictions, but Kendrick suggests work-arounds for many common dietary restrictions, such as using apple puree instead of eggs in some cake recipes, and clearly explains the uses of various “alternative” flours such as potato, rice, gram and masa harina in baking. It’s a fun, stylish production that fulfils the author’s desire to write a cookbook “that could be used by as many people as possible”.
