back to schoolLynda Booth of the new Dublin Cookery School in Blackrock, Co Dublin, has signed up leading Irish chefs Paul Flynn (the Tannery); Denis Cotter (Café Paradiso) and Nevin Maguire (MacNeans Bistro) to teach students on her full-time four-week professional course, which begins on Monday, and some seats are being made available for each of their afternoon demonstration sessions.
You can catch Paul Flynn next Tuesday, September 4th, Denis Cotter on Wednesday, September 12th, and Nevin Maguire on Monday, September 17th. The demonstrations will run from 2pm until 4.30pm in Booth's purpose-built premises, just off Carysfort Avenue, and the cost is €50. The school also has a full programme of evening and Saturday courses. See www.dublincookeryschool.com. Marie-Claire Digby
ship to shoreWhat could possibly persuade someone to swap life on a super-yacht cruising the Caribbean for a soggy summer in Ireland? Irish chef Niall Harbison, who trained with Conrad Gallagher and worked at Peacock Alley and Lloyd's Brasserie, where he was head chef at the age of just 21, has more recently been working as a private chef, catering to celebrities including Bill Gates, Lance Armstrong and Mariah Carey, on land and at sea. But he left the good life behind earlier this year to set up iFoods.TV, an online cooking tutorial and interactive food website, with partner Pieter Plaetinck. The website currently features 80 tutorial films, 25 free and 55 subscription-based, which were filmed at Castle Leslie in May. A further 50 step-by-step recipes, with an emphasis on healthy eating, are being filmed this month, and a butchery series is also in the pipeline. "Our belief is that we can save people a lot of kitchen space by helping them ditch their cook books, in the recycling bin, of course, for their own 24/7 online chef," is their claim. We're not clearing our bookshelves just yet, but the video clips are useful tools, and, as Harbison and Plaetinck are so well travelled, they have some interesting recipes to share. See www.ifoods.tv. Marie-Claire Digby