Sally's blog

If I had to choose but a few of my most memorable food moments in Ireland in 2013:

Mickael Viljanen's 'children's party' at The Greenhouse - a course of earthly delights including foie gras transformed into childhood memories in the shape of lollies, biccies, bonbons and 'tea.' All paired with a layered and fragrant off-dry Riesling, chosen by the excellent Lorraine Harmon, sommelier at The Greenhouse. www.thegreenhouserestaurant.ie

OK, put it this way, I’ve been around the block when it comes to food. It’s hard to get excited about it. These days I’d rather go for a run or a kayak than eat something that doesn’t either nourish or excite. But, just when I think I’ve seen and eaten it all, someone in the food world entrances me with a bit of wonder that makes me remember I have an appetite and senses.

Thank you to all those who wrote and told us about your #bestsandwichindublin. There are a lot of brilliant sandwiches out there! We have shortlisted your recommendations to a list of ten, but many more than ten deserve to win this title.

Back in 2002, when the film critic Anthony Lane collected his New Yorker reviews in the book “Nobody’s Perfect”, he sent it forth with a stern opening rejoinder: “You are holding a hunk of old journalism. The prospect is not immediately appealing.”

Cook it Raw is a trip on the wild side for leading chefs from around the world, who gather together for 5 days and – basically – go wild in the country. The event has been running since 2009, and has been held in Denmark, Italy, Finland and Japan. This year, the venue was Charleston, South Carolina, and Jp McMahon, of Aniar and Cava Bodega in Galway made the trip to the deep south. Here’s his report from Cook It Raw 2013.

Jp McMahon

Emma Bowe of Seven Social has never taken an easy path. She opened her tiny restaurant in a former hairdressers on a street with one of the worst reputations in the city with little passing trade (unless you count the Luas trams that whizz by within a few feet of the restaurant). Admittedly the Dice Bar was already established just down the street and the arrival of the trams had given an air of optimism to the area but even still this was a major risk for a cook with no formal culinary education, just lots of enthusiasm.

To call Peter Flynn and Vlad Rainis bakers feels like a lie: they are revolutionary leaders; they are leading the sourdough revolution which is happening in shops and restaurants across Dublin “one loaf at a time”.

Where in Ireland would you be able to grab some tuna sashimi, a drink of carrot and passionfruit, a sandwich of pulled pork with crackling, some Tipperary onglet, a frock for your child and a lunch with friends, all under the one roof.

When we launched the 10th edition of The Irish Food Guide last year, we trumpeted on about a quiet revolution in Irish bread, bacon and beer.
We could just as easily have added another stanchion to that trio: the dramatic improvement in Irish butchers – bread, bacon, beer, butchers.
The dynamism is most often associated with Pat Whelan of Clonmel, who has added another Dublin branch in Avoca at Rathcoole, following on from last year’s opening at Avoca Monkstown. The Avocas have heralded a new age of Irish butchers, an age we might call Boutique Butchery.

First things first: An Irish Food Story is a captivatingly beautiful work of art.
Yes, it's a book of recipes, but the elevated ambition of everyone involved in this project means that they have created a book that is unprecedented in Irish publishing. It's gorgeous. It's sexy. It's art. There has never been anything like it. Every one of Barry McCall's portrait photographs, for example, is a defining portrait.