What’s Food Month all about?

You’re going to see food explored from every angle; from how it’s produced, to how we buy it, sell it and consume it. Health issues, and how it has become a political issue will also feature in a series of stories from our correspondents and photographers.

We’ve teamed up with 10 of the best restaurants in Ireland to create reader restaurant offers from November 1st to 30th.

Dublin's Pichet, China Sichaun, Cleaver East, Osteria Lucio, White Gables and Ely, along with Cork's Jacobs on the Mall, Ox in Belfast, and The Treasury in Limerick have designed a custom lunch/dinner menu exclusively for Irish Times readers. Prices range from €25-€35 for a three-course meal. Just call the restaurant of your choice and book a table under Irish Times Reader Menu offer, and bring a copy of The Irish Times with you on the day. See irishtimes.com/restaurantoffer

Conor Pope and Catherine Cleary will take an in-depth look at the institutions that decide how we eat, spend our money, grow our crops and plan our towns.

Patrick Freyne will investigate food poverty in Ireland; food and nutrition in sport; the economics of some of our biggest food industries and lots more.

There will also be lots of additional recipes and interviews here in the Saturday Magazine, every day, Irish Times staff and some well-known faces will admit their guilty pleasures and strange eating habits.

Friday Food Forum will return each week between 1pm and 2pm, where well-known chefs and The Irish Times food team will be on hand to solve your cooking conundrums.

Our foreign correspondents will bring you up to speed on the food trends in their cities, while Generation Emigration readers from around the world will be sharing recipes and tips on where to eat in their part of the world.

Starting today on irishtimes.com, Forkful TV will begin series of five video recipes, two of which include mini-documentaries on Irish food producers. See page 20 for details.

Next Friday, November 6th, the glossy Winter Food and Drink special is free with the paper, with recipes from Lilly Higgins, Eunice Power, Domini Kemp and Christmas memories from Maia Dunphy.

Tune in to The Women’s Podcast later in the month for a special Food Month episode.

Bite 2015 is our brand new artisan food festival taking place from November 19th to 22nd at the RDS in association with Spar. There will be more than 100 artisan food stalls, with talks and demonstrations from some of the country’s top chefs, including Donal Skehan, Catherine Fulvio and The Happy Pear brothers. There will be free hands-on cooking classes, chocolate demonstrations and samplings, masterclasses and wine tastings with O’Brien’s and John Wilson, and a craft beer village. Tickets from bitefoodfestival.ie.

Try your chances at our annual food & wine quiz on November 12th when quizmaster Tom Kelly will put you through your paces. The venue is House on Leeson Street and tickets are €30 per head (including a three-course tapas menu with wine) with a maximum of four people per team. Bookings from welcome@housedublin.ie

A Killer Sandwich returns to The Irish Times building again this year, with a specially created sandwich that can be ordered online and collected from our offices on November 27th. You'll get a week's irishtimes.com digital subscription with your sandwich. Enter a competition to design an Irish Times front page and the winning entry will win a great prize, plus it will be printed as the sandwich wrapper on the day.

Look out for other food-related competitions throughout the month, including the chance to win a star prize.

See irishtimes.com/food for details