New TV series ‘Sharing the Table’ filmed in Cork

IT’S a grey and damp November evening, but the atmosphere is warm and convivial as we huddle around the table to share food, conversation, stories and a couple of Birra Moretti’s.

The Virgin Media production crew have arrived at The Anglers Restaurant in Carrigrohane, filming for their new series, Sharing The Table, where celebrities and guests sit shoulder to shoulder over a long table dinner while sharing good food, good beer and great company.

The series is hosted by Eoghan Doherty, and today’s celebrities include TV chef Matt Tebutt, a well-known face from his shows Saturday Kitchen (BBC) and Food Unwrapped (Channel 4). It’s a unique spin on the chat show format but is so much more than just that. It’s about illustrating how some of life’s best and simplest pleasures happen around the table.

There’s a distinct Italian theme to the evening, and arguably, if anyone can best demonstrate how to live life well around the dinner table, Italy is where we can take notes by the plateful!

Matt is no stranger to Cork, having visited several times over the years. He counts the Allens of Ballymaloe as among his circle of friends and will be returning to Ballymaloe next year for a special cookery demonstration.

It seems fitting to ask him what is his earliest memory of sharing food around the table?

“Ah, that’s easy,” Matt says. “It’s the memory I always go back to, and is the one that ignited my love of dimly lit bistros! 

When I was a kid, we used to go on caravanning holidays in France with my family; four of us and the dog in a tiny caravan. We’d go to these little French bistros in Normandy and eat food you just didn’t get in 1980s Britain - proper garlic bread, snails and fish soup.

“I was about five years old, and I remember sitting around this table and being enthralled by the low lights, the smells, the food. That homely vibe you get from these bistros.”

Once upon a time, we all met around the table at least once a day. But Matt says, with today’s busy schedules, it’s not happening enough.

“Everyone has busy lives, but it’s about priorities, I suppose. We do need to make time for it, because that’s where things get talked about. It’s where problems get solved, it’s where issues come up as well, but it’s just having time to reflect on what’s going on in everyone’s lives, and you can’t run away from it very easily!”

The Shared Table is an entertaining way to show how coming together around the table, rather than being a chore, can be something to look forward to; a necessary pause in the day where we can consciously reconnect with other people.

It’s what we should be doing more of, getting around the table, enjoying great food, people are relaxed because they’ve had a drink. 

"I see it even on my Saturday Kitchen show, after people are relaxed and they’ve had some good food, the chat is fun, relaxed and people talk more, things come up in conversation – it’s a catalyst for good living.”

One of Matt’s favourite places to holiday is the southern Italian region of Puglia. It’s a region famed for its food, but not in a glitzy way; simple food rules here and is reliant on having the very best of ingredients presented without any fanfare, but loaded with flavour.

“It’s like its own country. It’s right down in the south of Italy, it’s quite North African in some ways in that they have these masserias (fortified farmhouses on an estate), and the food is delicious,” Matt says.

“Like so much good food, it’s borne out of necessity and often poverty, and their food is incredible. It’s largely vegetable led and fish takes quite a big part of the stage. I love the coastline and relaxed vibes; I just think it’s wonderful.”

Matt says the secret to Puglian food is the simplicity, and it made me think how in Ireland we are quick to dismiss some of our oldest and most traditional dishes often because they are seen as too simple or unsophisticated.

I ask Matt what he thinks we can learn from the Puglians about their food culture that we can bring back to our own tables?

“We like to stay in these masseria’s where they grow their own food and make something delicious out of the simplest things, like orecchiette pasta with broccoli, chilli and garlic.

It’s the confidence of putting simple things on the table without being tricksy.

“People think good food is like Masterchef and it really isn’t. Good food is what’s handed down through generations and often through necessity, so a simple stuffed aubergine can be the most beautiful thing as it would a plate of pasta, butter and truffle. It’s simplicity and confidence.”

I can’t help but think what if we thought about simple, farmhouse Irish food and dishes with the same confidence and pride as the puglians. There is beauty in a beautiful piece of boiled ham with buttery mash and simple steamed vegetables in their prime.

So, what are Matt’s four most important elements to enjoying a meal shared around the table?

“Great food, good company, great drinks and music.” Simple.

The Shared Table airs on Virgin Media Two on Mondays, November 27 and December 4 at 10pm, and is repeated on Virgin Media One on Thursdays at 11pm.