John Torode’s Ireland (RTÉ 2, 8.30pm) originally aired on Britain’s Food Network and has received support from Tourism Ireland. The third in a trilogy of bespoke blarney, it follows Imelda May’s Voices of Ireland on Sky Arts and Adrian Dunbar’s Coastal Ireland on Channel 5, likewise backed by the all-island tourism marketing agency.
Those shows were hit-and-miss. The former opened with Imelda May wandering down Grafton Street, startling passersby with her spoken-word poetry; the latter had Dunbar gazing over cliffs and counting down to tea time. But this latest puffery is by far the most accomplished: the Return of the King of tourist-board advertorials.
That’s largely down to Torode, who, as fans of the BBC’s MasterChef will know, is a passionate and knowledgable foodie and loves to shoot the breeze with fellow gourmands. That’s just as well because the producers have served him up a big steaming heap of cliche. At the Gravediggers pub in Glasnevin, he has the “perfect” pint of Guinness (the first stereotype ticked) and, later on in his adventures, he goes for coddle (tick!) and his first ever Irish coffee (tick!).
But Torode’s also sufficiently curious to veer off the tourist trail and, being Australian, is less condescending than he might have been. Outside George’s Street Arcade, a French expat explains he’s in an area of Dublin known as the “Creative Quarter” (“is it?” wonders the entire population of Dublin and bordering counties).
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Then it’s off to foodie paradise Chapter One, and here Torode truly is in his element as owner Ross Lewis and head chef Mickael Viljanen present him with a sophisticated cheese dish. Torode ascends to gastronomic Nirvana: “Food is about three things,” he says. “Flavour, flavour and texture.”
One last cliche remains, however. And it is that everyone coming to Ireland is astonished it isn’t just pig farmers and people who look like they’re 90 per cent comprised of potatoes. Torode tells us Ireland is moving forward and becoming more outward and multicultural.
This is, of course, true: or at least it was 30 years ago when we really were sloughing off the grey vestments of the past. You would hope we had arrived at a point where visitors were not astonished that everyone is walking upright and that coffee is readily available – but apparently, there is still a way to go.
On MasterChef, Torode can be exacting and even grumpy. He’s far less gruff as he rambles around Dublin and prepares to strike out for the rest of the country (he will be travelling to Wexford, Cork and elsewhere later in the coming weeks). The praise flows like a stout in a tourist pub.
Dublin, he says, “is perhaps the most literary city in the world”; driving to Wicklow, he is struck at how poetically the city “dwindles away”. Part one concludes with sipping wine in a hot tub at a foodie retreat in Wicklow. He’s relishing every minute of eating his way across Ireland: viewers will enjoy settling in for a TV staycation with passion and flair.
