Food File: Wild baking and the beef in Ranelagh

WILD BAKING

Kate Packwood describes herself as a "British woman working with Irish ingredients", which is how she found herself a finalist in the recent Young British Foodie Awards (YBFs) in London, even though her Wildflour Bakery is based in Stoneybatter in Dublin.

She didn’t win the baking category, but nonetheless has been invited to create the dessert course when the YBFs stages a pop-up at the Rex Whistler Restaurant at Tate Britain on October 10th and 11th.

She will be serving “olive oil cake, preserved plum, hazelnut, ancient grain, star anise, long pepper, paired with Redbreast 12”.

“I set up Wildflour Bakery to offer cakes that have a distinctive style, an eccentricity and strong attention to detail,” says Packwood, a former academic, who studied at Trinity College Dublin and was working towards her doctorate when she was “seduced by food” and “swapped Shakespeare for cake”.

"Academic training taught me rigour and attention to detail, an appreciation of the beautiful and the pursuit of originality. I think that informs my baking. I started baking because I fell in love with Irish ingredients and provenance is extremely important to me." See wildflourbakery.ie.

HERE'S THE BEEF

Irish beef – Donegal-raised Dexter in this case – is taking centre stage at Brioche in Ranelagh on October 9th, when chef-patron Gavin McDonagh will be serving a five-course tasting menu in which the beef, pasture-reared by Cathy and Sam Dill on the Fanad peninsula, will feature throughout – even making an appearance in the dessert course.

After being hung for 36 days, the Dexter carcass will be delivered to the Dublin 6 restaurant for McDonagh and his team of chefs to get to work. Each will be using a different cut for each of the five courses. And that beefy dessert? It’s an intriguing creation featuring chocolate, beef suet pudding and plum. The tasting menu is €65 per person, with wine pairings, €35. Booking are being taken on 01-4979163.

DINING CLUB

Feargal and Fiona O’Donnell closed the doors on The Fatted Calf, the pub known for its outstanding food, in the village of Glasson, Co Westmeath in January and moved to a new premises in the centre of Athlone. “Our lease expired and we wanted a change,” Fiona explains. The new Fatted Calf is a 44-seat restaurant, open for lunch Friday and Saturday and for dinner Tuesday- Saturday.

The Fatted Calf Beef Club stages its sixth dinner meeting, and the first in the new premises, on October 30th. Head chef Deirdre Adamson and chef-patron Feargal O’Donnell will present a four-course tasting menu created around the centrepoint of John Stone Beef, with matching wines chosen by Wines Direct, for ¤55 per person. Bookings are being taken on 0906-433371.

CLEAN EATS

Who would have thought we’d see Jamie Oliver making protein balls and Neven Maguire writing a recipe for kale crisps? They’ve both joined the healthy eating brigade with books that show how to make small but significant dietary changes, with the aim of improving health and well-being. Everyday Super Food (Michael Joseph, £30) came about in response to Oliver approaching the 40th-birthday watershed and wanting to feel and look better. Maguire’s The Nation’s Favourite Healthy Foods (Gill & Macmillan,€22.99) is a collection of 100 uncomplicated, healthy choice recipes