For a man faced with the gargantuan task of corralling all the elements of the cooking for the Tour de France, Michael Ryan, of Isaacs's restaurant in Cork city, seems remarkably relaxed, unfazed even, by the whole shebang.
And what a shebang it is. Some 1,500 people will have to be fed each day, for the four days the Tour is here, from various locations, ranging from Trinity College and O'Connell Street, to Enniscorthy and Cork city. About 1,200 journalists, and 300 extras from the teams, plus and the cyclists themselves, need food to be on tap for large parts of the day, the sort of logistical challenge which seems to border on the impossible.
But Michael Ryan is just taking it as it comes. His brief, from An Bord Bia, is to work with the huge catering firm of Gardner Merchant and to put an Irish spin on the food.
"Spiced beef is one of the great dishes which I want to use, and I want to feature Simon O'Flynn's kassler, which I think is the best in the country. These are the sort of things we are working on, and what I want to do is to use as many of the foods from the small producers as we can. I want an Irish cheeseboard, for example, but you can imagine the scale we are talking about.
"So, the process now is to decide which foods we will use and then get everyone producing for the Tour, but of course to give them plenty of time to have everything ready."
`IT is symptomatic of the pride now felt by the Government in Irish food production that it should see the tour as a window of opportunity for Irish foods, and not simply produce catering food for the four days.
"All the meals must be different, and we will be using foods which not only reflect Ireland, but also give an flavour of the area where the tour is taking place," says Michael Ryan. "The food must be appropriate and, of course, sustainable."
Over the next few weeks, Ryan will be liaising with An Bord Bia and Gardner Merchant to finalise all the foods which will be featured, and as progress is made we will report on the logistical and culinary challenge for everyone involved.