Carrageen moss for campo Viejo tapas trail

We are delighted to be apart of this year's tapas trail in Cork the independent recently featured our recipe to celebrate the trail pairing with the fab wine

http://indo.ie/Hnae301Le7I

Celebrating 30 years

Eurotoque Ireland was set up by founding member Mrs Allen of Ballymaloe House this year and celebrates 30 years with some fabulous dinners cooked by its chef members including myself during July well worth going to if your in Dublin

http://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/food-and-drink/dine-for-ireland-like-charlie-haughey-as-his-old-haunt-pops-back-up-1.2702755#.V3JvXBaMFEc.twitter

Dingle food festival 2015

This year for the second year I was invited down to the Dingle food and wine  festival so myself and Vicki set off on  a fantastic weekend that is in its 9th year full of workshops cooking demos discussions and a fantastic food trail that takes you around the town and what fun it was to wander around taking in the atmosphere the food and the drink 

Such a variety of food and a fab map of where to go and what dishes are being sold in each venue from art galleries to book shops to restaurants all taking part in the trail 

The excitement meeting suppliers who are involved in the Blas na hEireann awards which run alongside the food festival this year I stood in forTom Durcan to collect his silver award for his spiced beef 

On Sunday in benders hotel I took part in the demos and really enjoyed it 

Show casing our spiced beef hash and carrageen miss served with apple and black berry 

Before it was time to head back east a last stroll around the town was had taking in the atmosphere the fun the banter the festival was buzzing a great place to catch up with new and old friends of the industry to gain knowledge and experience and the warmest of welcomes 

And with a spin up the Conor pass it was time to head home to Cork 

Food & Bev Live with Euro-toque Ireland

Cooking up a storm at food & bev Live with Eurotoque Ireland. A grand day out.

Eurotoque Young chef of the year

The winner of Eurotoque Young chef of the year Mark Moriarty of The Green House Dublin with Elena Arzach who herself was voted best female chef in the world In 2012 and her restaurant holds 3 Michelin stars

Scottish chef conference

I was invited by Chef Joe Queen & Braehead Foods to the Scottish chef conference and today had the opportunity to meet Roy Bret head chef proprietor of Ondine the AA Scottish restaurant of the year.

At the Scottish chef conference with the Braehead chefs headed by Joe Queen & James Grimes of Iasc shellfish butter the world's first unami butter


First three courses at Scottish chef conference the meal was cooked by student chefs in Glasgow


The last three courses


Here is more from Ondine Roy Bret inspirational

Celtic Cook-off

Micheal Murphy (Isle of Man), Olivier Quenet (Brittany & La Mason Dublin), Stewart Eddy (Cornwall), Joe Queen (Scotland & winner), Kate Lawlor (Ireland), Gareth Johns (Wales). An amazing bunch of people learnt so much and enjoyed every minute of it.

Celtic Cook-off 2013

Wednesday week Kate takes on chefs from 5 other Celtic regions in the Celtic Cook off.

Fenn's Quay hosts a wedding lunch

On Friday we had the honour of hosting a wedding lunch. Here's a peek.

American Cuisine Night at Fenn's

This Friday night, Fenn's is holding a special American Cuisine Night in honor of Bruce Springsteen's visit to Cork. 

American recipes with local Irish ingredients made with care and attention by No. 5 Fenn's Quay Restaurant. A perfect follow-up after Cork welcomes Bruce Springsteen the night before. Bring your ticket stub for a free glass of wine. 

Guests will enjoy a carefully planned and lovingly prepared three-course menu for €25 per person. Vegetarian options will be available. We will announce the menu tomorrow, but you can imagine some of the dishes will be similar to those we served on July 4th for dinner specials.

Attended children welcome. Reservations essential: 021 4279527  When you make your reservation, specify "American Night" to be seated with the rest of us. 

American Menu for Fourth of July

In honour of the American Independence Day today, we've included Maryland Crab cakes starter and Mississippi Mud Pie dessert on our specials menu. The Mississippi mud pie defiantly for all you chocolate lovers.

Vote for No. 5 Fenn's Quay for Ireland's Best Scone 2013

We're in the running again this year for Ireland's Best Scone, a competition sponsored by Goodall's of Ireland. You may remember last year when we were honoured to have so many customers nominate us and we earned hundreds of votes! This year, we're hoping to at least win best in Munster. Vote right now!

Voting is only open until 5pm Ireland time on Friday, 5 July. One vote person and a brief registration is required to make sure the competition is fair and just. It'll only take a moment of your time to vote so please do it. Pretty please with butter and jam. Take a peek at the screen shot below to study up for the important voting process.

And why should you vote for us? This is what Goodall's is saying about our scones and we have to agree with them. "Delicious, heart and belly warming stuff that will set up for the day!" And who can resist a scone made from scratch with local ingredients?

Just to remind you why you should vote for us, here are a few choice photos of our homemade scones. Yes, we also make our own homemade preserves/jam from scratch. The recipe is in our new and wonderful Cork On A Fork Recipe Book (available for FREE download).

 

Now, click on the Best Scone graphic to vote for No. 5 Fenn's Quay!

At the reigns @fennsquay for 4 years

In June 2008 Pat & Elish handed over the quays I can remeber the last night service for them as if it was yesterday the final call on there many years at Fenns suddenly it was mein to look after to care for and what has been the biggest roller coaster of my life but I love every minute of it through the trials & tribulations everyday I turn the key or go into the kitchen and get to working with the people that make Fenns work I enjoy we support each other with a want to go forward with the future

To celebrate we invited regulars & suppliers to a little soirée where we celebrated the last four years in bringing good luck for the next four years we have wonderful customers who we love to see Fenn's has been through floods and survived and we have hope and faith to survive through the recession. Oh and that's me in the photo wearing a dress with Miro in chef jacket my right hand man. Also there is a picture of me Pen & my cousin Bevina the next generation of Fenn's

Cork Food Week @fennsquay

I am a lover of Glenilen yoghurt's as much as i am their pots they put the yogurts in so much so i wanted to use them at Fenn's but what would do the jars justice ?
 

How would you use these pretty jars?

Iv now built up a little collection of them and cant bare to put them in the glass bin so here are some photographs of what iv done with my jars with a little help of my kitchen team.

Donal's poached rhubarb in an anise infused rhubarb jelly   

Gooseberry Jelly with upside down cheese cake

As you can see a pattern has developed with in our kitchen and these fabulous jars jelly looks great in them
and as we played with the types of jelly we put in  the jars we started experimenting with the custard that went with our jelly traditionally we went with the vanilla for the rhubarb but taking it a step further by adding a sheet of gelatine to it to stablise it and putting it into a siphon and charging it with the gas our result was good but not as frothy as we had hoped , with further reasearch we found a recipie for an infused custard with cinamon, anise, lemon zest and oranges zest it also used less egg yolks it tasted devine so we placed the cooled custard into the siphon and the perfect foam was produced that was full of flavour that married so well witht he elderflower and strawberry jelly . this custard is a traditional Catalan custard but we added the anise to intensify the flavour.

How would you infuse your custard ?

  Layered jelly & Catalan style custard

  

Rhubarb jelly & vanilla custard