FOOD TOURISM
Wednesday 13 July 2011
The importance of Food Tourism cannot be emphasised quite enough. It is a huge market which has not been recognised sufficiently in the past in promoting Ireland as a food destination. It only recently that there is even a vague nod to the whole business of food tourism - which can draw in people in their scores. Last Autumn when in France, long held up as the Holy of Holy of food destinations, I was horrified to see a television advertisement for Ireland which showed our beautiful wild mountains and coastlines but then a group of fossilized looking bods costumed in God only knows what sort of historic ‘traditional’ garb sitting, stoney faced, on chairs on a beach with a fella banging a bodhran – unbelievably not one mention of food was being broadcast to a nation who lives by and travels on its stomach.
Earlier this year I had an email from a man in Australia who had just returned Down Under, after a trip to the Emerald Isle, who wanted to tell me that he had been blown away by his food experiences here. He, like many others, had come on the ‘ancestral trail’ expecting, as he said, just to have to put up with the bacon and cabbage and Full Irish experience. This is a perception that has to be changed abroad rapidly by Tourism Ireland and Bord Bia. We are a Nation abounding with prime fresh unadulterated food – and that is a very important aspect – the freshness and purity of our food on this island. It is essential too that Bord Bia when promoting food events abroad send thoroughly experienced chefs to take part in such demos showing that we have the skill to prepare our wonderful food – not just some trendy untrained bod who can but barely lay out a bit of smoked salmon and a few Dublin Bay prawns. This will not cut the mustard with foodies abroad. We have very well trained young chefs nowadays – many who are working in top restaurants around the world, contributing their influences to those restaurants, and in time bringing the knowledge they have gained back to these shores.
We also have to fight for recognition outside Ireland when it comes to the major International awards. We fall in as one of the little countries that is but an afterthought in a particular region, being bulked in with the U.K., as is the case with the San Pellegrino World’s 50 Best Restaurant Awards – arguably nowadays the most influential Awards. I also have serious doubts as to how often, the extent of, or how many restaurants Michelin inspect in this country – it is an expensive business putting people out travelling and paying costs. When the World’s Best Restaurants issued their 2011 Awards this year I queried with them as to who out of the judges on their UK and Ireland panel of 31 people, headed up by U.K. Food Critic Jay Rayner, spoke up for Irish Restaurants. It transpired that they were relying on information from one Irish TV chef whom I doubt, with respect, would be as frequently in restaurants around the country as food critics. I hope they will change this next year and have a wider truer Irish based representation and take us more seriously for it is crucial that Ireland be recognised in the world wide culinary arena.
In London recently I visited some of the hip hot restaurants of the moment that are being tweeted, lauded, awarded, and written copiously about. I came away feeling that it was more about hype than the actual food I had experienced, and that we have just as good here and nothing nowadays to be ashamed of. My first port of call was to Heston Blumenthal’s new restaurant ‘Dinner’ at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Hyde Park www.dinnerbyheston.com Blumenthal of course is renowned for his molecular gastronomy at his mothership restaurant The Fat Duck – now No. 5 on World’s Best Restaurant List. Like many other top chefs, he is leaning towards less expensive more informal restaurants these days – I almost said ‘more accessible’ but ‘Dinner’ was booked out three months in advance - however I managed to get a cancellation. The menu genre, or gimmick some might say, is based on ‘historic’ dishes. My friend Mary had the much photographed Meat Fruit (c.1500) to start at £13.50 which has a ‘mandarin orange’ exterior which cuts through to a chicken liver parfait which was very pleasant but there it was – an optical illusion –and a simple chicken liver pate served with toast. Salamagundy (c.1720) £15 for me was a concoction which had three chicken oysters – yes the little bits at the backbone that mother picked out and handed you as a kid – dressed with bone marrow, some leaves, and a horseradish cream. Powdered duck (c.1670) £26.50 was two piece of leg, beautifully puffed up and glazed but tough as hell. Oh, yes and ordinary boiled cabbage in a white noodle bowl that I would hardly use in my own kitchen. ‘Dinner’ has been receiving ‘bouquets’ all round but I really felt like the little boy in the fairytale of the Emperor’s New Clothes! Here I would say come to Dublin and visit Thornton’s Michelin starred restaurant on St. Stephen’s Green where you can have a superb lunch or pre-theatre menu at €49 with slowly roasted quail, spring vegetable leaves, Szechuan pepper and thyme sauce, followed maybe by loin of rabbit, carrot puree, rabbit terrine and Valrhona chocolate sauce – and you will feel you have really experienced something. They also do a €25 lunch menu and a superb canape selection from €4.50 to €9 with sublime morsels such as cuit of foie gras rolled in black truffle, sauteed prawn with bisque and sabayon, noisette of Wicklow lamb with wild garlic, or a sushi plate. You can have a foodie experience in Ireland for very little if you are clever. www.thorntonsrestaurant.com
Our next port of call was to The Ledbury at Notting Hill www.theledbury.com where Australian, Brett Graham, a thoroughly nice chap, runs a superb 2 star Michelin restaurant, with just the right balance of professional yet unintimadating service. Ir reminded me of our own Chapter One here in Dublin, but the Ledbury is No. 34 on the World Best Restaurant List. We sat outside sipping Camparis as we had a truly superb three course lunch for £33.5 with starters of the most divine saute of guinea fowl with milk skin, stuffed morels, broad beans and summer truffle, and flamed grilled mackerel with Tokyo turnips, herring roe and mackerel tartare. Mains were roast fillet of cod with crushed new potatoes, asparagus and seaweed, and cheek of beef (the new belly of pork on menus now!) cooked for eight hours with creamed potato, pickled walnuts and bone marrow, whilst we finished with a pave of chocolate with milk puree and lovage icecream. All superb. At Chapter One www.chapteronerestaurant.com they do a fab similarly priced lunch at €37.50 where you can start maybe with potted rabbit and cured Irish ham with a mustard emulsion and marinated vegetables or gratinated asparagus with pata negra stuffing. Follow up with haunch of veal poached in Madeira with Ferguson’s smoked bacon cooked with yeast, watercress puree and sauce blanquette, or maybe hake cooked with seaweed and Japanese salt, crab beignet, broccolli puree and lemon emulsion.
Another place that is ‘all of a twitter’, getting rave reviews as the hottest table in town, and attracting the foodies to their doors is a simple Venetian ‘bacaro’ in Soho, Polpo, on Beak Street just off Regent Street www.polpo.co.uk This retro ‘bacaro’ is not really as simple as first appears, with its studied casualness and funky staff, all of whom look like out of work actors. You would go just to see the ‘street cred’ gear if nothing else. It has proved so popular that they have also opened Polpetto over the iconic French House pub on Dean Street. Food wise it is what the Italians of Soho have done well since the 50’s and 60’s but in small plates – which I always say add up. Well they do with me anyway – because I love this sort of food – little dishes priced between £1 and £12.60. We nibbled away at marinated moscardini £3.30, tiny little octopuses, which you can also buy in jars from Italian food wholesalers, mixing fritto misto £8, Bresaola rocket and Parmesan £6.70 into the mix. We finished with chocolate salami at £2.60 which looked like a slice of large black pudding – solid chocolate interspersed with raisins and nuts – great. However, you can experience much of the same food and buzz here in Eileen Dunne and Stefan Crescenzi’s Dunne & Crescenzi or L’Officina restaurants who have various branches around Dublin and who brilliantly brought this kind of casual Italian style dining to Ireland. www.dunneandcrescenzi.com <
Foodies are flying in and out of countries just to experience this or that great restaurant or food producer – and I don’t mean just the No. 1 Restaurant ‘Noma’ in Copenhagen. If the restaurants I visited in London have attracted that much attention – it’s time we perked our noses up and fought harder to be included on world ratings.
What about the setting up of a destination Food Centre and Cookery school by the Government where tourists, could take part in demos or classes for say two mornings or two afternoons as part of their visit either free or for a nominal charge. Surely our good chefs could give their time and work out a rota to promote Irish cuisine and their businesses at the same time. Likewise on another tack, the Ancestral trail is huge and I think again genealogists should be made available by the Government to tourists seeking help in this area. Anything to get the people into the country spending their money in Irish hotels, restaurants and shops. We need the ideas, the ‘carrots’, action and involvement of self employed people in the industry, not just those sitting in good pensionable jobs tossing out figures and preciously organising nice little events on nice little expenses…
This is where the Minister, Bord Bia and Tourism Ireland come in……….
THIS ARTICLE WAS FIRST PUBLISHED IN THE SUNDAY INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY, 10TH JULY, 2011.