Foodie Articles

On Monday of this week I had the privilege of presenting a masterclass in Irish beef at the Irish Ambassador’s Residence in Brussels. The audience for the masterclass were members of the “Irish Chefs Beef Club” in Europe which was established some time ago by Bord Bia. “The Club which includes some of Europe’s top […]

With the chocolate eggs of Easter already a memory, the longer evenings and brighter mornings are just bursting with potential.  I feel summer is only around the corner and with it comes an urge to think carefully about what I’m eating.  Maybe it’s the fact that we can go outdoors again without three layers of […]

There’s nothing like a little sunshine and a raise in the average temperature to get us all thinking about having a party.  This time of year is also confirmation and communion time so celebrations abound.  2013 is also the year of the ‘Gathering’ and even if you haven’t invited your long lost cousin home from […]

The stretch in the evenings, the early morning sunshine, a carpet of colour in the fields; spring has sprinkled its magic everywhere.  The minute the clocks go forward it heralds the promise of all things outdoors.  Suddenly those lonely looking tables outside urban coffee shops are spilling over with people and life and not just […]

Who remembers the ‘mixed grill’?  There wasn’t a fashionable restaurant in the land that didn’t carry a mixed grill on its menu back in the 1970s.  It was usually a combination of pork; be it chops, rashers or sausages but, somehow it managed to be evening food rather than breakfast as we’ve come to expect […]

Like everyone, I go through extremely busy patches where time flies by and there never seems to be enough of it.  I try and enjoy those seasons as I know they will come to an end, there will be some downtime and then it will all ramp up again.  It’s simply called life.  I’m in […]

Oxtail, a tough gelatinous cut of meat that was a favourite for stews and soups, has had an interesting cycle when it comes to fashionable eating.  Our ancestors knew all about nose to tail eating and everything was used.  They were very aware that once the prime cuts were sold there was plenty of meat […]

I have no doubt that my ramblings this week on the merits of beef dripping and the fact that we have introduced it as a product in our shop, will create three distinct groups – those who remember it well, those who have heard of it but are not too sure of what it is […]

Is it over?  Is it really over?  Is the entire month of January now in the past?  Thank God for that as I’m not sure I could have taken much more of those on the New Year abstinence kick. Somehow there seemed to be more of them this year than ever before.  Everyone I met […]

We hope you enjoyed reading this post by Pat Whelan of James Whelan Butchers. Pat is a 5th generation butcher, cook book author and the director of  James Whelan Butchers with shops in Clonmel, the Avoca Handweavers Rathcoole and Kilmacanogue, Dunnes Stores Cornelscourt, Rathmines and Swords in Dublin. Sign up to our newsletter for more updates […]

Last Thursday, I had the pleasure of being on Pat Kenny’s new radio show on Newstalk. On the show we discussed my new book, co-written by Katy McGuinness, the Irish Beef Book which is full of tips, advice and recipes to help you get the best from your beef. We also talked about the art […]

Last weekend I was delighted to appear on Marian Finucane’s RTE Radio 1 show to discuss the best way of coping with the stress of Christmas. We discussed the stress people put themselves under when deciding what to cook for Christmas dinner. I talked about the differences between the two main breeds of turkey – […]