Food file

The lowdown on food, by MARIE CLAIRE DIGBY

Learn how to run a restaurant

How often have you been told that your cooking is so good, and your hospitality skills so honed, that you should open a restaurant? Lots of people take the bait and jump headfirst into commercial catering without having learned the ground rules, and most of them fail.

In August, Blathnaid Bergin (right) is opening the School of Restaurant and Kitchen Management in Abbeyleix, Co Laois. The school’s inaugural course will be a 12-week module, costing €8,000, aimed at people planning to open a food service business, or already running a catering outlet that is underperforming.

Bergin has an MSc in Hospitality Management as well as a diploma in hotel management, together with 25 years’ experience in the hospitality industry. She has taught at the Ballymaloe Cookery School, and her management students will undertake a five-day course there as part of their training. The course starts on August 23rd, and you can see full details at restaurantmanagement.ie.

Spicy meat-a-balls!

Mallon’s of Monaghan, a family firm that makes extremely good pork, bramley apple and cinnamon sausages, has added pork burgers and meatballs to its product range. The black pepper and sautéed leek burgers are a diverting alternative to beef, but it’s the meatballs that are the more innovative product. The parsley-dusted plain pork variety, pan fried, make a good, simple tomato pasta supper, while the sweet chilli spicy ones are great threaded on to a skewer and barbecued, before being served in an Iceberg lettuce-stuffed pitta pocket and drizzled with Greek yoghurt. They are available from branches of SuperValu, with further supermarket chain launches on the way, and cost €2.50 for a tray of 12 meatballs or four burgers.

Summer thirst quenchers

Lime fizz – a mixture of sparkling water, fresh mint leaves, squeezed fresh limes and ice – is a terrific non-alcoholic summer drink.

Belvoir fruit cordials (below), which come in a range of interesting flavours including raspberry and rose, ginger, lime, organic elderflower and organic blueberry, are a good option too, and each 50cl bottle (€6.75) makes up to 10 pints when diluted with still or sparkling water. They are widely available in specialist food shops and delis.

For those with a sweeter palate, Aldi’s Specially Selected Cream Soda (right) is made in Ireland, with real Madagascar vanilla extract, rather than synthetic flavouring, which gives it a lovely pale golden hue. It’s also cheap – the two litre bottle costs just 89 cent.

If you thought SodaStreams had had their moment you may be surprised to see them on sale again in Harvey Nichols. They’ve had a make-over, of course, and the colourful limited edition designed by Karim Rashid costs €79.95 (left).

If you like your water plain and simple, you can feel extra virtuous by choosing Wellness Water, which comes in certified biodegradable, compostable bottles, with recyclable tops. The mineral water comes from an organic farm in Co Clare and is on sale in Londis, Costcutter, Gala and Supervalu (89c).