The art of ‘tablescaping’: dine in style and colour at home

If we are going to be dining in for the foreseeable, why not do so in style? Public relations consultant Tara O’Connor’s personal Instagram account is peppered with beautiful images of dining table settings, or tablescapes, she creates at her Co Kildare home, and admirers can now buy into her style, quite literally.

As a lockdown creative project, O'Connor has opened an online shop, thedesignedtable.com, selling a range of colourful tablecloths, runners, napkins and napkin rings. The linens and accessories are all designed by O'Connor and made in India by compliant manufacturers.

Tablecloths range in price from €65-€120, with matching (or mix and match) napkins €40 for a set of four. Table runners start at €35, with jute placemats €10 and napkin rings from €24 for four.

There are four ranges in the spring/summer launch collection, including solid colours, prints and checks, and O’Connor will update the selection seasonally.

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For tablescaping newcomers, O’Connor has this advice: “Start with your tablecloth, or if tablecloths aren’t for you, add a runner down the centre of the table. Add placemats on top of your tablecloth to create depth. If you’re serving an antipasti starter, add your starter plate. Don’t add layers of plates you have to take away when guests sit down. Pop a napkin in a napkin ring or as a nice fold on to your plate or placemat.”

Comfort food favourites

Who among us has not sighed deeply at the thought of cooking yet another meal from scratch these past 13 months? Takeaway has been a wonderful option, but sometimes it is good to have something stashed away in the freezer for an emergency no-cook dinner.

James Whelan Butchers, with 10 shops, and in selected Dunnes Stores and Avoca branches, as well as the mothership in Clonmel, Co Tipperary, recently added a ready-to-cook range of Dine at Home meals for two, with plans for online availability later in the year. The company is making the dishes at a production facility in Co Wicklow.

The menu includes comfort food favourites such as lasagne, beef shin mac ’n cheese, shepherd’s pie and cottage pie, as well as butter chicken curry and spicy chicken wings. But the runaway winner in the popularity stakes is the pulled sugar pit bacon shank and cabbage pie, topped with mashed potato.

There are no nasties on the ingredients list – the beef mac’n’cheese, for example, contains macaroni (51 per cent), Irish beef shin (35 per cent), along with milk, beef stock, carrot, celery, onion, red wine, cheese, tomato paste, white wine, mustard, garlic, herbs, cornflour and fried shallots. Each pack serves between two and four people (more likely two, generously) and costs €10.

Online cookery classes

The popularity of online interactive cookery classes continues to soar, and chef and food entrepreneur Eamon Lynch has taken the concept a step further. Having signed up eight prominent names in Irish food for a series of online demonstrations at his Sprig Cookery School, Lynch has also teamed up with DropChef to have the ingredients needed for each class delivered to participants.

For what seems a bargain price of €49, you can access the class as well as make a main course for two people, without leaving home. For example, Niall Sabongi will take participants through the selection and preparation of a range of fish and shellfish and cook a fish dinner for two, depending on market availability. His wholesale company SSI will deliver the fish and the remainder of the ingredients will be delivered by DropChef.

Aoife Noonan’s class will be on how to make choux buns, and all of the supplies, including a piping bag, will be delivered. Gráinne O’Keefe, who recently announced that she is moving on from her head chef position at Clanbrassil House, will cook a starter and main course in her class, with modern Irish cooking as its inspiration, and again the ingredients, delivered, are included in the fee.

Other participants in the series include Brian Donnelly of Bia Rebel Ramen, Clair Dowling of Tiller + Grain, Alice Tevlin of Rua Food, Nick Reynolds of Lil Portie, and Kevin Roche and Taurean Coughlan of Two Boys Brew. For dates for these classes and the full programme at Sprig Cookery School, see sprigcookery.com/classes.

Lynch, who has been a chef for 12 years and also worked as a tutor at Dublin Cookery School, completed a Masters in culinary innovation and also studied project management before setting up Sprig Cookery School.

Virtual wellness

Rory O'Connell brings his culinary kudos to a fundraising initiative next week run by the charity Goal. Good Vibes (April 26th-30th) brings together eight experts in the fields of sport, nutrition and science for a week of virtual wellness events. You can register individually or as a company or group, to take part. Registrations will be accepted at goalglobal.org until Sunday evening and the fee is €15.