This is the Christmas gift that people who love food will be hoping to find under their tree this year. But not everyone will be so lucky, because there are only 365 of them available. Fionntán Gogarty’s Wildwood Vinegars Four Season gift boxes are individually numbered and each contains a barrel-aged balsamic which Gogarty says “captures the essence of its season”.
The beautifully presented collection is made up of wild elderflower and wild rose petal for spring, wild mountain thyme and wild fuchsia blossom for summer, wild blackberry for autumn (aged for six years) and wild elderberry with star anise for winter (also aged for six years).
The gift box costs €80 and is exclusively available from husseysfarm.com for delivery nationwide.
Watch and learn
Gareth Mullins, executive head chef at the Marker Hotel in Dublin, put the spring lockdown to great use, developing a strong following for his cooking videos and recipes on Instagram. Now he has developed what he describes as an online "watch and learn cookery experience", sold in cycles of four chapters, going live on Monday evenings at 7.30.
An upcoming series, Christmas Classics, will address everything you need to know about cooking for the festive season. The four programmes, beginning on Monday, November 23rd, will cover canapes and drinks, starters and sides, main course turkey and ham, and desserts.
The classes are hosted on Zoom and an interactive Q&A with Mullins runs via Zoom Chat throughout the class. A link to the video is sent to participants, so if you miss a class, you can watch it later or refer back when cooking. Each module costs €20 and the series of four is available for €60.
“I will focus on skills as much as the recipes but I truly think Christmas cooking should be fun. I am also sharing some ideas to get the kids involved in the cooking because at the end of the day Christmas is about family, good food and enjoyment,” Mullins says. For more information, email garethmullinscookery@gmail.com
Cocktail enthusiast
Cork-based food stylist and photographer, Monika Coghlan, has written her first book, Craft Cocktails, in which she shares recipes and beautiful images of 50 drinks made with Irish spirit brands from right across the country, as well as background stories about the people making them. Up your "locktail" game with this lovely, self-published work or gift it to a cocktail enthusiast. On sale from November 13th, it costs €24.95 (plus postage and packaging) from pepperazzie.ie.
