Bringing home the bacon: Prue and David Rudd, founders of Rudd's antibiotic-free bacon, are no longer associated with Rudd's bacon products. Instead, Prue and her son Simon have started a new company, Prue & Simon's, with a range of foodstuffs based on Prue's recipes.
They include her sausages, dry-cured back rashers and back bacon joints and also preserves, chutneys, jams and Christmas hams. Their plan is to supply only limited outlets with their products, as well as taking part in farmers' markets. Simon, as it happens, is also joint manager of the rock band Jaded Sun, the opening act for Bon Jovi at Croke Park recently. You can find Prue & Simon's in Dublin at Morton's, in Rathmines; SuperValu on the Rise, Mount Merrion, Churchtown and Deansgrange; Fresh, in Smithfield; and Donnybrook Fair. Check out their website at www.prueandsimons.com. Deirdre McQuillan
Learn from the master
Peter Gordon, the New Zealander who stirred up London's culinary scene when he opened the Sugar Club in Notting Hill in the late 1980s, is now co-owner and chef at The Providores, on Marylebone High Street in London. Some colleagues were very impressed by a recent meal there, and Gordon also has restaurants in New York and New Zealand. There'll be a chance to pick up tips from this master of fusion cooking, who cites Spain, China and Turkey as his most recent inspiration, when he visits Ballymaloe Cookery School in Midleton, Co Cork on July 17th. The one-day course costs €225; 021-4646785 or www.cookingisfun.ie. Marie-Claire Digby