Dine in styleYou've had a saunter around, watched a demonstration or two, snaffled a bargain from the trade stands, and now it's time to take the weight off your feet and have a bite to eat. But the queues for the food outlets are snaking around corners, and now you're cranky and starving.
If that sounds like an all-too-familiar scenario at festivals, exhibitions and concerts, you might be interested to learn that you can pre-book a sit-down lunch in civilised surroundings at next weekend’s Bloom festival of horticulture in the Phoenix Park. There will be two sittings at Bistro Bloom (12.30pm and 2.30pm) and tables can be booked by emailing bookings@withtaste.ie, or tel: 01-6268293. The set menu will cost €19.95 for two courses and €24.95 for three. Taste will also have a seafood and wine bar and a cafe within its dining marquee, just beside the walled garden.
Be stage struck
You could go to Bloom in the Phoenix Park and pass a very happy day without ever looking at a garden, such will be the range of food and drink on offer. Chefs Neven Maguire (pictured, appearing on Thursday and Monday), Darina Allen (Friday), Jenny Bristow (Saturday), Donal Skehan (Saturday) and Catherine Fulvio (Sunday) will be demonstrating how easy it is to cook delicious meals on the Bord Bia cookery stage. There will be four shows each day and you can check the timetable of events at bloominthepark.com.
The Food Market will be bigger than ever, with 48 exhibitors, including newcomers Goatsbridge Premium Irish Trout, condiment makers Harty’s of Tralee, Kooky Dough ready-to-bake cookies, and Paddy’s O’Granola breakfast cereal. The range of products on offer in the market will be extensive and will include chocolates, artisan cheeses, cakes, breads, smoked fish and Irish honey.
New for 2010 is a Lost and Forgotten Skills marquee where there will be talks, demonstrations and tastings celebrating Ireland’s culinary heritage. If you’ve forgotten how good griddle scones taste, or want to know how to cook with seaweed, this is the place to be.
Craft beers, spirits and liqueurs will be on sale and on offer for tasting at the Bloom Inn and the Craft Beer Garden, where exhibitors will include Slane Castle Whiskey, Dungarvan Brewing and the Porterhouse.
Rave review
Sarah Raven is the gardener’s cook, and if your visit to Bloom inspires you to get cooking, her latest book, Food for Friends Family (Bloomsbury, £30), is a glorious riot of colourful photographs and lively recipes.
It is arranged into four seasonal sections, and Raven’s love of growing things as well as cooking them shines out from the glossy pages. Photography is by Jonathan Buckley.
Bloom launches
New food products to look out for at Bloom next week include Patrick and Carol Rooney’s Derrycamma Farm rapeseed oils and the Country Cooking Company’s Boxty Bakers Slices. The Rooneys produce rapeseed oil on their farm in Castlebellingham, Co Louth. It can be used in the same way as olive oil, and comes in plain and flavoured varieties (garlic, chilli and Indian spice). The attractively bottled oil will sell for €5.99 for 500ml, and after its Bloom launch, will be distributed to food shops by Sheridan’s Cheesemongers (see rapeseed-oil.ie). Stephen Hennessy of the Country Cooking Company, based in Carrick-on-Shannon, will be introducing Bloom visitors to his mother’s recipe for boxty. It has already won approval in high places, having been served as part of the St Patrick’s Day menu at celebrations in the Irish Embassy in Brussels. The potato-based product comes in a variety of flavours and is slow-baked in large loaves before being sliced and packed, ready to reheat at home.
