Popular food festival to return to Cork this week 

The Cork & Kerry Food Festival returns to Cork City Hall this Halloween weekend, from Saturday, October 31, and Sunday, November 1.

One of Munster’s largest indoor local and artisan markets, the festival will see City Hall brimming with stalls, bringing together food producers, chefs, cooks and foodies from across both counties and beyond to showcase the very best of the region’s food and drink.

Alongside the market are live cookery demos hosted by Cork author, journalist and broadcaster Caroline Hennessy, and the Foodie Forum chaired by food writer and educator Cathy Fitzgibbon.

On the live demo stage in the Millennium Hall, more than a dozen cooks and chefs will join Caroline across 18 demos. She interacts with the demonstrators and invites questions from the audience, so if you have a question you’ve always wanted to ask, now’s your chance! It’s perfect for fans of cookery shows, but here you can literally smell and even taste the food… and get all the tips from the experts.

Among the highlights, Rebeca Recarey Sanchez heads the kitchen at Kinsale’s Michelin Bib Gourmand-recognised Saint Francis Provisions and demonstrates some exciting vegetable dishes. Mike McGrath of Miyazaki, the acclaimed Evergreen Street counter where Japanese technique meets phenomenal Irish produce, cooks up a flavour of magic!

Athula Kuruppu Achchige, a former head chef at the Hayfield Manor, puts a twist on Sri Lankan street food. Jay Choi of OGAM Korean brings a taste of Korea, and Greg of Don Gregorio on Cork’s Washington Street, whose Sicilian roots inspire his cooking, makes fresh pasta.

Skibbereen-based chef Matthew Brownie, a New Zealander and a passionate advocate for all things West Cork, demonstrates a home-smoked dish. Fermentation specialist and author Dr Julia Skinner brings a fascinating demonstration of lacto-fermented half sour and full sour pickled cucumbers to the stage, and Orla McAndrew, known as Ireland’s first zero-waste wedding caterer and a champion of sustainable cooking, serves up Zero Waste Food: Yesterday’s Leftovers, Today’s Feast.

Originally from Alaska, Epi Rogan of Fiáin Wild Foods has made her home in Cork and has cooked in some of Ireland’s most acclaimed kitchens, including Forest Avenue and Bastible in Dublin and Paradiso, Pilgrim’s in Rosscarbery and The Glass Curtain in Cork. She serves up a Forager’s Breakfast of eggs with laver cake, wild mushrooms and cep ketchup.

Clara Cooney of Clara Cooks, a Ballymaloe-trained chef and host of the Cork Food Stories podcast, will kick off proceedings on Sunday morning with pumpkin-to-plate dishes the whole family will love!

Meanwhile, at the Foodie Forum, Cathy Fitzgibbon’s own talk, Nourish to Flourish, explores eating with the seasons. Samantha Schmidt, the Outdoors Herbalist, shares Irish herbs for digestive health, Colman Power of Organic Fitness talks about quick, clean organic lunches, and Sofia Kalfa of Sustainability in Cork Alliance tackles sustainable coffee.

Plus, sustainable catering expert Orla McAndrew shows how to cut food waste at home, and Gretchen Kessler of A Grave Success makes wine from the garden.

See the full schedule at https://corkkerryfoodfestival.com/

The Cork & Kerry Food Festival is delighted to welcome a number of exhibitors in the early stages of their businesses, supported by the Local Enterprise Offices (LEOs) in Cork and Kerry, which help food and drink start-ups take their first steps through a wide range of programmes.

“Halloween is all about food and gathering at this time of year, and that’s exactly what the festival is about. It’s a celebration. Our local food industry continues to go from strength to strength, from long-established producers to new businesses coming through, and the festival has always been a place to meet and share ideas,” said Conor Hyde, Festival Manager.

The event celebrates a food culture deeply rooted in local agriculture and produce, but always outward-looking. The region has a world-class reputation for its hospitality and food and drink, from butter to whiskeys and beers, and has long embraced culinary influences, flavours and inspiration from beyond our shores.

That story starts with the land. Rolling pastures, pristine coasts and a temperate climate have always given the region a bounty of agricultural produce. For generations, farmers across Cork and Kerry carried their wares along the butter roads to the Cork Butter Exchange in Shandon in Cork city, which grew into the largest butter market in the world and even pioneered one of the first food quality control systems anywhere. Cork’s breweries and distilleries flourished alongside it.

In modern times, a great foodie culture grew up across County Cork, with acclaimed restaurants, celebrated farmhouse cheeses and a buzzing city food scene. Kerry, meanwhile, is a byword for hospitality, having welcomed visitors since the 18th century.

The region’s culinary story is also one of openness and dynamism. For centuries, Cork Harbour linked us to the world, facilitating exports and trade and bringing back then-exotic ingredients, including the sugar and spices that still flavour Cork’s famous spiced beef.

Today, the region reaches out to Irish communities abroad, welcomes visitors from near and far, and has become home to many talented chefs, cooks, producers and foodies from around the world who are now part of the story.