Chef Killian Crowley, from Aniar in Galway, has developed a six-course tasting menu for the House of Peroni experience, which returns to Dublin on August 22nd to September 1st, and will be based at the Royal Hibernian Academy (RHA) on Ely Place in Dublin 2. The RHA's artists' studio will be transformed into a restaurant for the event.
This year the multi-sensory art, design and cuisine installation takes its inspiration from the Italian region of Puglia, which Crowley visited earlier this year along with nine other creatives involved in the project. House of Peroni will also pop up in Barcelona, Paris, Stockholm, Santiago and Johannesburg.
Crowley’s planned menu involves “Irish produce served Pugliese style”, and will begin with a selection of Gubbeen cured meats, followed by carpaccio of salted courgette with wild bog mint. Gubbeen chorizo stuffed tomatoes will be the next course, with orecchiette al ragu made with Irish beef cheeks to follow.
The fish course is whole monkfish stuffed with preserved lemon and spinach, cooked on the bone and served family style. Dessert is olive oil gelato, one of three varieties of the Italian iced dessert he has created; the others being preserved lemon and Peroni gelato. There will be a vegetarian alternative menu.
Tickets for the tasting menu are €60, to include Peroni refreshments, and can be booked online at thehouseofperoni.com.
Tuna gets the chilli treatment
Shines Wild Irish Tuna, the family-owned Killybegs firm, has just introduced a new product, Shines Chilli Tuna, and it is really delicious. Not normally a fan of canned or jarred tuna, I was won over by these firm, meaty fillets of yellowfin packed in subtly spicy chilli-infused sunflower oil. It would make a really excellent twist on a salad Niçoise.
Processed and packed in Spain for Shines, the 185g jar costs €6.75 and is available at SuperValu nationwide, and some independent food stores. It joins the company's range of Wild Irish Tuna – albacore caught off Irish waters in late July, August and September – and premium sardines.
Two Irish chefs shortlisted
The search is on to find the S.Pellegrino young chef 2020, and from an initial entry of 2,400, just 135 have been shortlisted, including two from Ireland. Nicolas Fagundes Galindo from Chapter One and Arlen Ortega from One Pico, both in Dublin, will now go forward to one of 12 regional cook-offs taking place around the world, and from which the finalists will be selected to take part in the Grand Finale in June next year.
The young chefs are judged on their technical skills, creativity and communication skills. Ortega, who is sous chef at One Pico, made the cut for the regionals with his dish of “Whole duck with papelon sauce, savoury cabbage and seaweed gel”. Galindo’s dish is “Flavours and textures of palm and ox tongue”.
Ballyvolane seafood soirée
The walled garden at Ballyvolane House in east Cork will be the setting for a Summer Seafood Soirée on Saturday, August 10th, with four courses matched with white wines from Rías Baixas, selected by wine writer Corinna Hardgrave. Head chef Steve Mercer is planning a menu around oysters and smoked and cured fish canapés, crab, lobster, and turbot on the bone, with summer pudding for dessert.
Dinner, with a Bertha's Revenge negroni cocktail, and wine costs €67.50. Overnight B&B accommodation is available at €160 (glamping) and €200 (per room, main house). If the weather does not co-operate, dinner will be served indoors. For bookings, see ballyvolanehouse.ie.
Ballymaloe course
For cooks who want to polish their culinary skills, but cannot spare the time to commit to the 12-week certificate course, Ballymaloe Cookery School in Co Cork introduced a five-week course last summer and it proved a popular alternative. The next one begins on August 5th and runs until September 7th and costs €5,695. See cookingisfun.ie.
