Sláinte agus táinte

I SPENT many happy years working as a private chef in Ireland and still get to make the occasional trip across the unforgettably choppy waters. Naively, besides ‘the black stuff’ I knew little of what food and drink the country produced. On my first day, I was sent to the local butcher and fishmonger and realised that Irish food was suffering the same fate as ours in Britain: outstanding ingredients, beautifully produced but frustratingly not nearly celebrated or championed enough.

Today, after much hard work from passionate chefs, writers and, more