Food file

Compiled by MARIE-CLAIRE DIGBY

Chef on the run

After toiling through the night at Butlers Pantry HQ in Bray, don’t expect to see head baker Fabrice Hergaux delivering his wares to the shops by bicycle. By the time the brown, white, sour dough, rye, brioche and foccaccia loaves reach shelves in Rathgar, Blackrock, Clontarf, Donnybrook, Greystones, Monkstown, Sandycove and Sandymount each morning, he’s safely tucked up in bed . . . having nightmares about being pursued by head chef Jonathan Fitzpatrick (on left in pic), presumably.

[ mymexicanshop.ie ]

Mexican Lily Ramirez-Foran and her Irish husband Alan Foran opened an online shop this week, selling specialist Mexican ingredients. They also plan to include some Irish ingredients used in Mexican cooking. A homesick Ramirez-Foran began cooking after arriving in Ireland 10 years ago, and her blog, amexicancookinireland.com, has some tried and tested recipes. The couple, who live in Walkinstown, Dublin, also hope to take a stall at a Dublin market, venue to be decided. Their online shop stocks moles, chillies, spices, beans, salsas and tortillas, or masa harina (corn flour) and a tortilla press, if you prefer to make your own. The blue corn masa harina makes a pretty tortilla and costs €5.50/kg. Free shipping in Ireland on orders over €50.

the buzz

Mary Dowey @ProvenceFood: Stumbled across fun wine bar in Aix. Decent stuff to drink @ just €1 a pour. Now thats value! Au P'tit Quart d'Heure - bit.ly/Im3DKU

Hapsical Blog @hapsical: Philips does a coffee machine with a fingerprint sensor. Swipe your finger it instantly makes a coffee to your personalised specification.

Benjamin Goldsmith @BJGoldsmith: Marco Pierre White to taxi driver: “Waterloo please.” Taxi driver: “The station?”, MPW: “Well Im a bit f***ing late for the battle.”

Ready, steady, cook

Food writer Donal Skehan’s third cookery book, Kitchen Hero: Great Food for Less (Collins, £18.99) is published next week, and the accompanying TV series kicked off on RTÉ1 last Monday. During filming, Skehan invited some of the country’s most prolific food bloggers to dinner in his home.

“As the theme of the series is great food for less, I chose a frugal but delicious dinner party menu of roast squash, coconut and chilli soup, crispy porchetta with root veg mash and sticky toffee banana puddings,” Skehan says. “I started my career in food via my food blog, which was discovered by Mercier Press, who asked me to write a book. The Irish food blogging community has grown from only about 15 members when I started to nearly 500 now.”

Skehan is pictured in his kitchen with food bloggers (left to right): Roseanne Hewitt-Cromwell (Like Mam Used To Bake), Aoife McElwain (I Can Has Cook) Caroline Hennessy (Bibliocook), Imen McDonnell (I Married An Irish Farmer), Lilly Higgins (Make Bake Love) Kristin Jensen (Edible Ireland).

A further five episodes of the 13-part series will be screened on RTÉ1 on Monday evenings at 8.30pm, and it will resume in the autumn.