In season now, watercress is great eaten raw in a salad or blanched briefly and blended in to a soup

Vegetable is often used in pies but works surprisingly well when paired with seafood

Studies have shown how certain music will make us eat or drink more, or help us digest

It should be ground freshly – but should the steak be seasoned before or after frying?

Bread with tomato is a very simple combination but it proves itself as an exciting dish

JP McMahon: I was six at the time and a far cry from the chef I am today

I’m not a fan of fast food but that doesn’t mean I’m beyond learning from it

Cooking with fire is one of the greatest pleasures

JP McMahon: Lentils get many mentions in literary history, from Aristophanes to James Joyce 

If the answer is yes, then let’s value it enough as a subject to teach to our children

They’re not from Jerusalem and they’re not artichokes, but they are delicious

There’s more to fermentation than preservation and flavour

It may not sound as appetising and gluttonous as devouring birds and beasts but a seafood Christmas is something we should all con(...)

I’m trying to think of winter salads that will bring a bit of warmth or at least fill us up more

Food’s relationship with sex has a long history, from the erotic aspects of oysters to the supposed aphrodisiac qualities of choco(...)

In past generations a chicken carcass was another meal, not just bones to be disposed of 

JP McMahon: Try this wonderful meat – it’s the time of year for it

Anything you do with lamb, you can do with goat: stew, fry, braise, roast and curry. So get out there and find yourself some

Now that autumn is over, it’s time to use up what’s left of its bounty

How these cheese makers turned the tide on a commodity culture of cheese strings and spuriously named cheddar is beyond me

JP McMahon: As long as apples have not begun to rot, they can be used for baking

Once considered the poor man’s choice, it is now a transformative staple for most of us

Curried monkfish took nation by storm in the 1990s, leading to a brief abandonment of cod

The right slaughtering can really help with freshness

We should teach our children what a blackberry looks like, tastes like, and how to cook it 

JP McMahon: This ancient food is rich in all the stuff that could help ward off disease

Many Irish people don’t like oysters – native or Pacific – and that is a tragedy

JP McMahon: In Ireland we’re obsessed with beef, but fish is the future

Fresh porcini are harder to come across than dried ones, but it’s worth seeking them out

Food has always followed people, and this is perhaps its beauty

Ginger is now less used here for baking and more for cooking curries, ramen and bone broths

Spices have been a part of Irish cooking since the Vikings, and their influence lives on today

Like our forebears we can still enjoy wild salmon, brown trout and (now sadly neglected) eel dishes

It can’t always be steak and sausages – barbecued mussels, clams, oysters, prawns and lobster taste amazing

Instead, in Ireland, we can only dredge, which does serious damage to the seabed

It’s a feast or famine with berries, currants and cherries but making them last longer is easy

Enjoy the courgette season with a little stir-frying, flame-grilling, slicing and dicing

Peas work wonderfully with white fish but a classic alternative is ham hock

We could still learn a lot from Anthony Bourdain’s moules marinière

Oysters and seaweed should be our national food – saline ice cream is strange but superb

I love ham hock and cabbage. But not the kind your grandmother cooked. Not the noxious type

Would you order raw beef for breakfast?

Give me a chicken salad any day – but not the sad Caesar kind with mircowaved chicken you find everywhere

Nothing says summer quite like a dish of baby vegetables in a fresh dressing

May is the month for this edible grass, a totem of brighter and hotter days

But I love them in everything from salads to ice cream, and for making vinegar

Everyone from Jamie Oliver to René Redzepi and Thorsten Schmidt is serving a version of this Austrian classic

Cava Bodega in Galway celebrates 10 years in business. The chef shares his top tapas

Morels, with their unique honeycomb-like appearance, are one of nature’s true beauties

Regarded as a weed by some, this plant makes a lovely tea or pairs well with asparagus

‘Foraging now is extremely hip and sexy – as opposed to being a necessity’

The cross on the bun signified the Crucifixion while the spices in the bun pointed to the embalming of Christ

This fish dish is as easy as pie

Nearly all food bought during the storm was processed with ready meals and bread most popular

We forget that each time we eat, we owe our lives to the many who grow food

Go to the shore and forage for this natural wonder – then get cooking

JP McMahon: It’s been a long winter of root vegetables

Children love cooking and the tactile mess that evolves from combining ingredients

Take inspiration from the simple genius of Danish chef Bo Bech

If we are condemned to be a country of potatoes and beer then we need to make sure we produce the best potatoes and best beer in t(...)

February is a wonderful time for eating fish, but be aware of where it comes from

JP McMahon: I quit vegetarianism after seven years. It’s a diet with ethical issues of its own

Bocuse, one of the masters of French gastronomy, has died at the age of 91. Thornton reminisces about working with him and McMahon(...)

Venture out of your comfort zone, get some good Irish seafood and cook it over an open flame

A vegetable-forward dish that I like to cook at this time of the year is roasted cauliflower with hazelnuts and lardo

JP McMahon: Savoury will take over from sweet when it comes to desserts

If you can’t have a glass of wine while preparing Christmas dinner you are doing something wrong

I prefer to make mash at Christmas. If you prefer duck fat roast potatoes, then do them. But you don’t need both

While we do have Christmas cake in our house, I have never understood its appeal

The invention of sourdough in Ireland is credited to a woman who went for a wander with her lover

There are so many ways to show your appreciation of beef, in particular the slow and long ways that induce those mouth watering um(...)

Anybody can make delicious fresh pasta from scratch. Here’s how

JP McMahon:Turf-smoked salmon, turf-smoked beef, turf-smoked butter; these are things that for me are distinctly Irish

Michelin-starred chef JP McMahon on the influence of the late Italian chef, Antonio Carluccio

JP McMahon: Whatever happened to treating vegetables with the same respect as our meat and fish?

Great pairings include pork with shellfish, prawns with rhubarb, and cockles and lamb

Don't be put off by the gnarly appearance of celeriac, it can make smooth, delicious dishes

Grilling vegetables over a direct flame gives them a beautiful bittersweet umami flavour

Spices, vegetables, tomatoes, stock and chicken all go in to the one pot, writes JP McMahon

Ireland has a rich tradition of roasting wild fowl – pity pigeons are so hard to come by

Seasonal supper: Blackberries and venison tartare work exceedingly well and are a great introduction to the beauties of wild food

Ireland, once king of the rashers, is now filled with cafes serving pre-cooked, rubbery bacon

It’s not illegal in other European countries – so why here?

Seasonal supper: for the ideal medieval meal

Don’t be put off if you are unable to buy salted ling– it’s very easy to make

Flicking through a 1949 book, what struck was how modern the recipes seemed

Seasonal Supper: When in need of inspiration around vegetables I turn to Antonio Carluccio

Lasagna is always down to good-quality ingredients: use the best and you’ll get the best

People from the Spanish city regard dish as one of their most important cultural symbols

Irish lamb has a wonderful distinct flavour and combines well with many types of seaweed

For an alternative Sunday lunch or dinner, try a whole roast turbot

I never imagined one could eat just tomatoes and toast for breakfast

A simple recipe for a bitter-sweet thirst-quencher

Fresh or pickled, cherries go wonderfully with goats’ cheese

While langoustines are a little more work than their soft shell equivalent, they are very rewarding

Seasonal Supper: garlic scapes have taken the food world by a slow storm

Seasonal Suppers: Lured by the mayfly, this most traditional of Irish meals is perfect right now

It is one of our native herbs and we should all experience its beauty

Seasonal Supper: Pickle this flower, or use for seasoning roast chicken or fish

Seasonal suppers: with wild salmon, keep it simple, and don't ruin it in the frying pan