Compiled by MARIE-CLAIRE DIGBY
Coffee and cups
Naora, the latest limited-edition coffee from Nespresso, takes its inspiration from wine-making and grape harvesting, using new techniques to allow the beans to mature til the last possible moment. The result is a medium-bodied, fruity coffee, made from Colombian beans. The espresso cups and saucers accompanying the Naora launch are these delicate porcelain designs by French designer Christian Ghion. They cost €35 a pair, and are available from the Nespresso boutique in Brown Thomas and nespresso.com
Knit one Parle two
‘Stevie Parle’s Dock Kitchen Cookbook’, by Stevie Parle, published by Quadrille, £25.
Stevie Parle has the Ballymaloe Cookery School, Moro, Petersham Nurseries, River Café pedigree that is shared by some of the best young chefs in the UK at the moment, and his Dock Kitchen restaurant in West London is one of the most successful permanent progressions from the now oversubscribed “pop-up” phenomenon.
His second book, Stevie Parle’s Dock Kitchen Cookbook: Real Home Cooking from Around the World, is just as multicultural and international a production as My Kitchen: Real Food from Near and Far, his 2010 debut under the Quadrille New Voices in Food banner. In other words, you’ll be hunting down some exotic ingredients if you cook from it. And Parle is of the “if you haven’t got it, cook something else” school, so very few substitutions are tolerated. Unusual ingredients abound – gum mastic, freekeh, Baghdad Bharat and cocum among them. But that’s what makes this a great read; it’s learned and authoritarian, but also relaxed and modern. Purity and authenticity are bywords of Stevie Parle’s cooking, whatever continent he’s exploring at the time. This week, he has been in Italy, cooking British food with Italian ingredients at another pop-up – that word again – as part of Milan Design Week.
Heavenly goods
Check out An Tairseach organic farm shop at the Dominican Convent in Wicklow town, where you can buy vegetables and fruit, beef, lamb, pork and eggs, produced by the four remaining nuns in the convent grounds. They've just extended the shop to include a dairy counter too. For opening hours, see ecocentrewicklow.ie
Cooking with Clodagh
Mediterranean-style entertaining is the theme for a series of Thursday-evening demonstrations in Clodagh’s Kitchen at Arnotts in Dublin 1. Sparkling wine and canapes will be served on arrival, followed by a cookery demonstration, and then a sit-down dinner, at which the three dishes made during the class by resident chef Clodagh McKenna will be served. The Perfect French Dinner Party is the inspiration for next Thursday’s class (April 26th), followed by Summer Alfresco Dining on June 21st, Italian Summer Family Food on July 19th and Spanish Cooking on August 23rd. The classes start at 5pm and end at 8pm and cost €55 per person. You can book by email with erin@clodaghmckenna.com, or tel: 065-906 2563.
Across the Liffey on Grafton Street in Dublin 2, Food in Fashion is a Thursday-night special at The Restaurant at Brown Thomas, combining a two-course healthy-eating menu for €18 with 50 per cent off the price of all bottles of wine on the list every Thursday evening.
