Compiled by MARIE-CLAIRE DIGBY
The buzz
Top food tweets . . .
@SheridansCheese: January cheese sale in our shops markets, 50% off a selection of Munster, Pont l’Eveque, Camembert, Reblochon Mont d’Or
@sweesan @Nigella_Lawson: Can I use navel or Valencia orange to substitute Seville orange for your recipes? Add some lime juice 4 sourness
Tara Hammond @SlatedIreland: Chef Antony Worrall Thompson has been caught shoplifting milk, yeast and flour from his local Tesco. He’s clearly run out of dough
Matthew Fort @matthewfort: Some thoughts on leaving the Guardian, see fortonfood.wordpress.com
Webwatch theskintfoodie.com
“A few years ago I went from being an affluent and avid restaurant-goer and home cook who spent a fortune on food to living as a homeless, hostel-dwelling member of the underclass: alcoholic, on benefits and in the care of my local mental health service. It was a bit of a shock, actually. Still, I found I could live without many of the trappings of my former life – career, friends, car, clothes and travel – but not good food. And that, when you’re hovering around the poverty line, can be an issue.” This is the attention-grabbing introduction to a new food blog that launched this week. The writer, who wants to remain annonymous, has had a few tough breaks in life, to put it mildly. His guide to buying, cooking and eating good food, on a tight budget, makes for fascinating reading.
Learn from the master
Quite a few professional chefs joined keen amateurs at a course given by Food Wine magazine chef of the year 2011 Mickael Viljanen (left) at the Tannery Cookery School on Monday, and if you missed out this time, he will be doing another one-day demonstration at Ballymaloe Cookery School in Co Cork next Saturday, January 21st (9am-5pm). The cost is €255, including lunch. See cookingisfun.ie or tel: 021-4646785. Later this year (October 17th), Ballymaloe Cookery School will run a course with London chef Jeremy Lee, who recently left the Blueprint Café for Soho landmark Quo Vadis, which relaunched this week.
Book of the week
Fortunes made and lost, mass deaths due to poisoning, and ancient traditions threatened by smuggling, fraud, armed robbery . . . Tom Mueller’s Extra Virginity, published last week has all the makings of a great thriller. But it isn’t a work of fiction, it’s the story of olive oil, or The Sublime and Scandalous World of Olive Oil, as his book’s subheading explains.
It’s scary stuff, and will make you look more closely at what you’re buying (there’s an excellent chapter on what to look for when purchasing). Recent Italian police investigations revealed that four out of five bottles of Italian olive oil had been adulterated with oil from other countries. So, knowing where your extra virgin olive oil comes from is increasingly important. Lino Olivieri makes a wonderful oil (above right) from the 1,211 trees on his family farm in the Gargano National Park in Puglia and ships it back to Dublin, where you can buy it at the Dublin Food Co-Op in Newmarket, Dublin 8, every Saturday. A litre bottle costs €10, and a five-litre can is €40. Further stockists are listed on his website, olivierioliveoil.com. Fionnuala McKenna and her young family, originally from Co Mayo, have been living in Puglia for just over a year and she is now selling her second harvest of olive oil from the seven-acre grove she bought in 2009. McKenna sometimes shares shipping arrangements with Olivieri, and her oil (€33 for a three-litre can) can be ordered online and collected at addresses in Westport, Galway, Athlone and Waterford. It is also sold at Cafe Rua in Castlebar. See atasteofpuglia.com.
Extra Virginity: The Sublime and Scandalous World of Olive Oil, by Tom Mueller is published by Atlantic Books (£18.99/€22.75)
