West Cork born tour guide: Food tourism is coming into a new era

THE food culture of West Cork is embedded in Karen Coakley’s DNA. Born and raised in Bantry, her life has been imbued with the rugged beauty of the Beara Peninsula, and the people that spearheaded today’s modern Irish food.

It was that love of great Irish produce and a renaissance in Ireland’s restaurant scene that encouraged Karen to record her life and recipes via Kenmare Foodie.

Since 2018, she has branched into food tours of Kenmare, where guests could experience making a baguette at Maison Gourmet, sample beautiful handmade cheeses, a guided wine tasting with a sommelier, and more besides.

In 2022, after making a comeback following the challenging Covid years, Karen’s tour was named one of the top ten food tours in Europe. This coming summer season, her confidence is high as she launches a new tour in Killarney and private tours through her beloved Beara Peninsula.

I caught up with Karen to ask her about her journey from stay-at-home mum to TV personality, tour guide, and business owner.

“I moved from Bantry to Kenmare in 2000 with [husband] Vincent and the two boys, Calen and Aodhan. Then, in 2007, we had twin boys, Rory and Connor, and I was a stay-at-home mom,” says Karen, whose life became about wrangling four young boys into young men.

I devoted my life to cooking for my family, making sure they had the best of ingredients and home-cooked meals every day. I worked part-time in a restaurant, but I always had this passion for food.

Growing up in West Cork, produce – the variety and abundance of it – was the norm, and the love of it a constant; there in her blood.

“When you grow up in West Cork, the food runs through your veins. But it’s not until I left that I realised how much of an impact it had had on me. I was looking for the local produce that I always had, like Peter Ross’s carrots, but in 2000 in Kenmare there were fantastic restaurants, but the produce wasn’t there as much as it is now.”

Growing up in Bantry, Karen had a part-time job the check-out at SuperValu. She recalls Jeffa Gill hand delivering Durrus Cheese, made just down the road, and the likes of Gubbeen chorizo going across her check-out.

“When you grow up with that, it becomes part of who you are. I was incredibly inspired by these women in West Cork who were making all these amazing things with milk,” Karen says.

“I remember going into Manning’s Emporium in Ballylickey when I was about 18, and he had this really lovely looking bread. I asked him what it was, and he said that was sourdough. That was in 1990; West Cork already had foods like this, and the area led the way. It just made me who I am.

“Ireland is an incredible place now, in that local produce is something that is available everywhere, so that’s really fantastic to see.”

In 2012, Karen became involved in a food festival in Kenmare.

“That put me out into the world of social media, chatting to chefs, producers, journalists – everyone in the foodie world.”

From there, she set up Kenmare Foodie, initially as a recipe blog and as a way to share her life in Kenmare with Vincent, her four boys and the family pets.

Five years later, Karen was regularly appearing on RTÉ’s Today Show, cooking her own recipes and spreading even further her message of West Cork and Kerry produce.

The food tours, though, came about entirely by accident.

I had always wanted to do something in food tourism, and [food tours] were just a no-brainer. I had a couple of conversations with friends who said I had all this passion for food and Kenmare, and that I really should consider doing food tours.

The tours started off for Karen as something to do on a Wednesday, “to get out of the house and away from kids; away from the kitchen sink, earn a little bit of money and be able to share a little bit of my passion.”

From that nugget of an idea, Karen has worked hard over the years developing the food tourism side of her business that now forms the bedrock of her brand. People travel from all over Ireland, the UK and U.S to Kerry, specifically to meet Karen, have a tour, and experience the Ireland she portrays through her social channels.

“Kenmare Foodie only ever started out as my scrap book. That was the beginning of me trying to find a space for me or my identity outside of just being a mum and someone who lit the fire and cooked dinner,” she explains.

While her Kenmare Food Tour remains her flagship offering, Karen has been working closely with Fáilte Ireland as part of the working group on the West Cork and Kenmare Destination and Experience Development Plan (DEDP). And the work is starting to pay off. Private tours of the Kerry side of the Beara Peninsula cater mainly to the market for U.S visitors on a once in a lifetime holiday in Ireland, and after recognising that Killarney was ripe for food tours, this year Karen launches a new twice-weekly food tour there.

“I always loved Killarney,” she says. “As a child, we always came to Killarney in our caravan on holidays. I love it, and outside of Dublin it has the most tourist visitors per capita in Ireland. There’s a lot happening there with food, especially post- Covid; Killarney has had a huge transition and is really leading the way in Ireland with its sustainability charters.”

But Karen is still bowled over by those that book in for one of her tours because of her presence on social media.

“When I first ran tours in Kenmare on Wednesdays, I discovered it was people following me on Instagram from Macroom, Cork and Killarney who were coming because they had been following me, had cooked my recipes, and wanted to meet me and do the food tour with me.

I have followers in America and the UK booking a food tour because they follow me on social media, and I often think it’s bonkers, but fabulous!

“I do private cooking cases as well,” says Karen. “I recently got a booking request for an American family who were staying in Kenmare and wanted me to do a cookery demonstration at their rented house. But before it started, they gathered around me, and the mother gave me a painting she had made of one of my favourite photographs of me sea swimming. Turned out they were followers; she had spent months painting that to give to me. I cried my eyes out! It was unthinkable that someone in America would do that for you, then book you to cook for them. Her husband had made me a lovely cheeseboard, and now we’re friends on Facebook!”

Karen says what people want from food tourism has changed significantly post-Covid.

“Food tourism is coming into a new era,” she says. “People want immersive experiences, unique experiences, and they want authenticity. Younger generations really focus on sustainability and are very much into their food and where it comes from. That all flags what I’m about and what my tours are about.”

Since beginning Kenmare Foodies, Karen’s boys have grown up. Calen is 30, Aodhan is 26, and Connor and Rory are now 16. But, says Karen, home life is not so different.

“The only difference for them was, last summer, I didn’t cook so much and that was a big shock! 

There was a time when I always cooked, but now I just say I can’t do everything – I can’t be making money and cooking dinner all the time!

“I’m still really close to the boys and they’re home regularly. For a year and a half over Covid, they were all home. That was tough for them, especially the older two, because they had to step away from the lives they had and move home. But it was also good because they had time to figure out what they wanted to do.”

Ahead of her new tour season, Karen has unveiled a new-look website. It’s a one-stop-shop for everything Kenmare Foodie, from food tours and private cookery classes to her collection of recipes. The project was funded entirely through the Digital That Delivers programme with Fáilte Ireland.

“I’m thrilled with my new website,” says Karen. “I would say to anyone working in food tourism to link in with Fáilte Ireland; I wouldn’t be where I am without the supports they have given me.”

Karen has built a successful business and a recognisable brand from nothing but a wish to share her joint passions for food and home life, learning as she went, and all while juggling a hectic family life.

There is never a right time to start a new chapter or try something new or to invest in ourselves. But, says Karen, if there is something you really want to do, the only obstacle to making it happen is you.

“When I had the idea to do food tours, they went around in my head for a long time. I kept saying it was a crazy idea; no-one’s going to come on a food tour, how am I going to make it work? 

When something goes around in your head, it can turn into a negative thing and make you walk away.

“But one day I went for coffee in Maison Gourmet, a bakery that is on my Kenmare Food Tour, and met [the proprietor] Emma. I told her I was thinking of starting a food tour, and straight away, she said what a fantastic idea it was, that I should bring the group to the bakery to make baguettes!

“Once Emma said that, I realised maybe it wasn’t such a bad idea, and I took it from there.

“Work with people who believe in you, and if it doesn’t feel right, it’s not for you. You have to feel good about what you’re doing.”