The culinary delights of za’atar, gochujang and umami have become embedded in the lexicon of many Irish food enthusiasts. But we haven’t always had such an international approach to our kitchen cupboards. How have we increased the diversity of our palates?
The Taste of Dublin returns to the Iveagh Gardens in Dublin from June 15th to 18th, and this year’s festival theme is Flavours of the World. Organisers hope to reflect the growing multiculturalism of our larders. “Irish tastes have been changing so much over recent years,” according to Taste of Dublin managing director Avril Bannerton. “The growing multinational community has played a major role in bringing new flavours and taste experiences to these shores, as have those returning from living and working overseas. We wanted to highlight how outward looking Irish food and drink can be through our chosen of theme for this year’s Taste of Dublin.”
A chef who’ll be taking part in Taste of Dublin this year is Kwanghi Chan. He’s the owner and creator of ChanChan sauce and spice range (chanchansauce.com), and formerly head chef at Waterford’s Cliff House Hotel. From Buncrana in Donegal, his first cooking job was as a teen in the kitchen of his family’s Chinese take-away. Recently, he’s been exploring Chinese-Irish food culture through a project called Sláint-Chi (slaintchi.com) with the American food writer Mei Chin.
“Twenty years ago, Chinese take-away food was exotic,” Chan says. “But since then Chinese food has become cool. If you go down Capel Street or Parnell Street in Dublin, there are amazing flavours happening in the authentic Chinese and Korean restaurants along those streets. Irish people are travelling more as well, and China in particular has really opened up in the last 10 years for business. People are coming home with a taste for different flavours.”
Chan has just returned from a trip to Hong Kong and Japan, where he has been exploring the culinary tastes of those food cultures. “Instead of focusing on fine dining,” he explains, “I was looking for the really tasty umami, the finger-licking stuff. I found it in the street food there.” It’s those flavours that Chan wants to highlight at his Taste of Dublin appearance this summer.
Some of the restaurants taking part at this year’s Taste of Dublin include Indian retaurants Pickle and Jaipur, Asian fusion restaurant Saba, China Sichuan, KLAW seafood bar, Ely wine bars, Suesey Street and Michelin-starred Deane’s EIPIC in Belfast, with more to be announced in the coming weeks.
There will be interactive masterclasses, and beer and wine tastings, plus more than 150 live demonstrations, too, from chefs including Clodagh McKenna, Darina Allen, Gill Meller of The River Cottage in the UK, Irish chef Robin Gill from The Dairy in London and Aoife Noonan, the executive pastry chef at Dublin restaurants 777, Super Miss Sue and The Butcher Grill.
Taste of Dublin tickets start at €15 and are on sale now at tasteofdublin.ie.
