Winner all right
Sunil Ghai, executive chef of the Jaipur group of modern Indian restaurants – including Ananda in Dundrum Town Centre in Dublin 14 – was a popular choice for the Chef of the Year accolade at the
Food & Winemagazine awards in the Mansion House last Sunday.
Chapter One on Parnell Square, Dublin 1, was voted Restaurant of the Year, with L’Ecrivain and Pearl Brasserie in joint-second place. Regional restaurant winners were MacNean House and Restaurant (Ulster), The Tannery (Munster), Campagne (Leinster), The Pier Restaurant (Connaught) and Pearl Brasserie (Dublin). Readers of the magazine selected KOH restaurant and cocktail lounge on Jervis Street, Dublin 1, as recipient of the Readers’ Choice award. John and Francis Brennan of The Park Hotel, and Michael Deane, of Deane’s restaurant, were inducted into the Hall of Fame.
Restaurateurs and suppliers from all over the country turned out in support of these awards, including Kieran Murphy of Murphy’s Ice Cream, who travelled from Kerry with his partner Manuela and baby daughter Róisín, to acccept the Artisan Producer of the Year award. The party continued until the small hours at Ron Black’s lounge.
Go to school on an egg
There'll be a new regime in many homes on Monday morning, when schools re-open and the lazy days of summer come to an abrupt halt. Inspiration for cheap, nutritious, and above all easy and quick-to-make breakfasts, lunches and suppers, useful for busy parents, is available in a new booklet from Bord Bia. The recipes, including the cheese and tomato macaroni with ham (or broccoli), pictured below, all make use of eggs, one of the cheapest and most accessible sources of protein. "We want to remind people that 'An Egg a Day is OK'," said Teresa Brophy of Bord Bia. The free booklet is available to download from www.eggs.ie, or you can request one from Bord Bia, tel: 01-6142294.
Web Watch
www.englishmum.com
Family-friendly recipes, funny stories, and a scene-stealing greyhound called Bert, are the reasons to read this entertaining blog written by a mother-of-two, now living in "English Towers" in Co Cavan.
A recent recipe for easy tandoori chicken with cheaty flatbreads is so simple and delicious that once you've cooked it, you'll be tempted to throw away those takeaway menus.
One for the road
Feel like running away? Grab one of these snazzy Veuve Clicquot Traveller bags at the airport to ease you on your way. The stylish leather-trimmed pack contains a bottle of champagne and two flutes and the RRP is €90 in duty free shops, and at selected independents nationwide.
Grin and bear it
"Eat your gummy bear" must sound a lot more attractive to a small child than "take your vitamin pills". Pharmaher Healthcare is on to a winner with its L'il Critters range of vitamins and supplements formulated for children and presented as jelly bears.
Needless to say, they don't have any artificial colours or preservatives. L'il Critters come in six formulations and are on sale in pharmacies as well as Dunnes Stores, Superquinn and Supervalu.