Everything can change in a New York deli
A range of products from Dean & DeLuca, the New York delicatessen, went on sale in Brown Thomas in Dublin this week. Spices, marinades, pasta sauces, condiments, oils, risotto kits, maple syrup and chocolate are among the smartly packaged food products being sold on level three of the store, in addition to kitchen accessories such a tea towels and mugs.
This is the only outlet in Europe for the upmarket brand.
Brown Thomas Dublin also recently opened a new cafe, Green & Bean, on its second floor. Casual, healthy, breakfast and all-day menus have been overseen by chef Johnnie Cooke, who is also responsible for the more upmarket The Restaurant on the third floor of the Grafton Street store.
Buttered up in Cork
A food trail with a difference in Co Cork is being launched this weekend by the Minister for Food, Michael Creed. The Old Butter Roads Food Trail, which will highlight the food grown and produced in the Muskerry, Duhallow and Avondhu areas of Co Cork, traces the route that was used to bring produce to the Butter Market in Cork.
Cork city and Blarney are the focus of attention this weekend, with a series of events planned to launch the trail. You can learn how to churn your own at the Butter Museum in Cork (noon and 2.30pm, Saturday, April 29th), and attend the official launch of the food trail by the Minister at Blarney Church of Ireland at 6pm. A screening of Jasper Wynn's documentary The Butter Road will follow the launch at 8pm.
The Sunday programme includes a storytelling competition (Blarney Church of Ireland, 3.30pm), a smoked-food workshop (old Blarney post office, 6-9pm), and a tasting menu dinner at the Square Table in Blarney (€55, prebooking required).
Last four standing at Producers’ Row
A shortlist of 10 food businesses has been drawn up for Bank of Ireland's Producers' Row at the Taste of Dublin festival (June 15th-18th) and the final four, who will win the opportunity to run a stand at the festival, free of charge, will be chosen by the public. Votes can be cast at bankofireland.com/tasteofdublin until midnight on May 5th.
The finalists vying for a chance to market their product to the event’s expected attendance of more than 30,000 visitors are: Oh! Naturelle (sorbets and dairy-free ice-cream); O’Brien’s Farmhouse Cheese; Scott’s Irish Cider; The Tipperary Kitchen (cakes and desserts); Nutrilicious Food (nutritious readymeals); Flavour Safari (African-inspired sauces); Mama Nagi’s (Indian chilli pastes); Arctic Stone Ice Cream; Clotilde’s Fruit Compotes, and Cabot’s of Westport (hummus, sauces, pâtés and dips).
Horseboxing clever
Domini and Peaches Kemp's Itsa Food Ltd is offering small food businesses a chance to trade from its two renovated horseboxes, repurposed as food vending units, which are parked at Kildare Village outlet mall.
The trailers will be occupied on a rota system this summer by a range of interesting vendors, including PS Roasters (speciality coffee by brothers Peter and Simon McCormack), Mud Bakery (cakes and brownies by Great Irish Bake Off runner-up Shane Murray), San Pasqual (home-baking with global influences from Yvette Eiffe), Wild Berry Bakery (Susan Robbins Fehily's sweet treats), Luxe Gelato, Bean and Goose (Karen and Natalie Keane's hand-made chocolate), Hatch & Sons, and the Kemp sisters' own Alchemy Juice Co.
