This weekend sees the start of the ninth annual Food Month at The Irish Times. From tomorrow and throughout November, you'll find a wide range of food news and features across all sections of the newspaper, and online at irishtimes.com. There will also be some mouth-watering offers, fantastic competitions and reader events to participate in.
Our food writers Paul Flynn, Aoife Noonan, Lilly Higgins and JP McMahon have been creating new recipes for their columns in the Irish Times Magazine to keep you busy in the kitchen all month. John Wilson has been on the search for exciting new wines to recommend, and restaurant critic Corinna Hardgrave reviews new dining experiences at a variety of price points.
In addition, there will be two recipes of the day online at irishtimes.com, at 6am and 11am on weekdays, bringing a host of new culinary inspiration to readers. In the first of these, chefs who are members of Euro-Toques Ireland will contribute to Kitchen Cabinet, a series of recipes in which they create a dish using their favourite Irish artisan food product. What’s for Dinner is another daily recipe feature in which media personalties and celebrities share how to make their favourite midweek meals. First up, on Monday, is Ireland rugby coach Paul O’Connell with his family’s favourite, chilli con carne.
We will be inviting you to join Aoife Noonan and Lilly Higgins in their home kitchens too. Starting this weekend, tune in on Sunday at 3pm as Aoife Noonan hosts the first of five weekly Facebook Live interactive baking masterclasses on the theme of Comfort Food Classics. She will be baking the dish that appears in her Irish Times Magazine column the previous day, and this weekend it's a deliciously decadent sticky toffee pudding – see facebook.com/irishtimesfood.
Lilly Higgins will welcome readers into her kitchen in Cork throughout the month. Every Monday evening at 6.30pm, she will cook the family-friendly dish that features in her column the previous Saturday, on her Instagram IGTV channel – see instagram.com/lilly_higgins_. Next Monday it's a vegetarian dish, one-pot spaghetti with mushrooms and courgettes.
On Friday, November 12th, the Irish Times Winter Food + Drink magazine will be distributed with the newspaper and will include an invaluable guide to Ireland’s top 100 restaurants for 2021, as selected by Corinna Hardgrave, Lisa Cope and Ali Dunworth. It also has an exclusive extract from And For Mains ..., the new cookbook by chef Gaz Smith and butcher Rick Higgins, along with recipes and features on whiskey, beer and wine, food and fashion, chefs, travel and party planning.
We have some great prizes to be won too, including an opportunity to become part of the wine team at The K Club in 2022. The prize, with an estimated value of more than €10,000, includes accompanying K Club sommelier Lisa O'Doherty to wine tastings and events, a trip for two people to Bordeaux to visit Barton & Guestier's Château Magnol, and a food and wine masterclass afternoon in The K Club wine cellar for the winner and three friends, with an overnight stay. For more details and to enter, see irishtimes.com/kclub.
There is also a competition to win a four night, four dinner stay for two people at Cliff at Lyons in Co Kildare and the Cliff House hotel in Co Waterford, including reservations for dinner at Michelin two-star Aimsir and Michelin one-star House, as well as at The Mill restaurant at Cliff at Lyons and Bar restaurant at the Cliff House. For more details and to enter, see irishtimes.com/cliff.
If you would like to join the Irish Times Food & Drink Club, you can do so here. You can also follow us on Facebook here, and on Twitter here.
To keep up to date with all of the Food Month activity and articles, see irishtimes.com/food and follow the hashtag #ITFoodMonth
