Can you stand the heat? -If you've ever shouted at the TV during an episode of Masterchef, Hell's Kitchenor The Restaurant, and thought your could do better, now's your chance to prove it. The producers of Heat, a new TV programme being filmed this month and next and scheduled to be screened on RTÉ in the summer, are looking for eight talented, non-professional cooks, who have ambitions to open their own restaurant, to take part.
Each week two of the selected contestants will run their own kitchen team and serve dinner in a real restaurant - Ely HQ in Dublin 2, where filming will take place on Sundays, when it is closed for regular business. Chefs Kevin Thornton and Kevin Dundon will each mentor one of the wannabe chefs, and the winner of each heat will be the amateur chef whose menu is most popular with the diners, who will chose which menu they want to eat, and pay for. If you can stand the heat, you can apply to take part, as an aspiring chef or as a customer, by e-mailing heat@loosehorse.ie or calling 086-2693929.
Break away -The Real Food Festival, which takes place in Earls Court in London (April 24th-27th), is a perfect excuse to visit the city, if one were needed. There will be a food market - the biggest ever farmers' market in the UK; a wine fair, taste workshops led by author and TV presenter Clodagh McKenna and Slow Food's Sebastiano Sardo, a chefs' theatre and cookery school, and meet-the-producer sessions. The festival is only open to exhibitors who have been handpicked by a selection committee, and the Irish participants include Kinvara Smoked Salmon; Irish Raw Milk Cheese Presidia - Bellingham Blue; Anthony Cresswell (above) of Ummera Smoked Products; Herbal Heaven and Inagh Farmhouse Cheese. There's an international flavour, too, with caviar, oysters, Portuguese cheeses paired with aged port, Californian charcuterie, Iberico ham, and Hebriddean cheeses among the gourmet delicacies represented. Tickets for the festival cost £15 if booked in advance (see www.realfoodfestival.co.uk) or £18 at the door. The opening day is trade only.
WEB WATCH: www.forkncork.com -Wine writer and restaurant critic Ernie Whalley's website has a slot called Amuse Bouche, which is the forum for lively, and sometimes heated, discussion on all things culinary. Spot the occasional contributions from a poster who uses the tag TomD. Whoever could that be?
MARIE-CLAIRE DIGBY