{"id":16445,"date":"2013-08-18T15:13:20","date_gmt":"2013-08-18T22:13:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dsweb.jessicaotoole.com\/wordpress\/?p=16445"},"modified":"2019-04-29T23:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-04-30T03:00:00","slug":"the-taste-of-cavan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/dsweb.jessicaotoole.com\/wordpress\/the-taste-of-cavan\/","title":{"rendered":"The Taste of Cavan, Ireland"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m feeling very lucky at the moment. When we moved to Cavan Town (population 5,600) I expected lots of rolling hills and sheep. I didn’t expect to find a passionate community of artisanal food producers and chefs in the greater County Cavan (population 52,900). Recently the people of County Cavan came together for the second annual Taste of Cavan<\/span><\/a><\/span> event to showcase artisanal foods and talented chefs. Over two full days butchers sold sausages, bakers touted pies and Irish soda bread, cheesemakers brought their wheels, ice creameries scooped cones, jam makers sold preserves and a chocolatier traded her confections. Local chefs and celebrity chefs gave cooking demos. The Irish Countrywomen’s Association<\/span><\/a><\/span> held a summer berry pie competition, Corleggy Cheese<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0featured their Caven-bert,\u00a0and the iconic 99 made it’s debut in adorable cupcake form. For me, the highlight of the weekend was meeting Clodagh McKenna<\/span><\/a><\/span>, someone I’ve admired since I first saw her show, Clodagh’s Trails<\/em>, on public television in America. Clodagh is an entrepreneur, a cookbook author, restauranteur, and Irish foods advocate. Her enthusiasm is contagious, and I love that Darina Allen dubbed her, “The woman who makes things happen.” I heartily suggest all my American friends check out her cookbooks, Clodagh’s Kitchen Diaries<\/span><\/a><\/em><\/span> and Homemade: Irresistible Homemade Recipes for Every Occasion<\/span><\/a><\/em><\/span>.<\/p>\n

\"Taste<\/p>\n

{Photos: Clodagh McKenna and Jessica O’Toole, Tom and Corleggy Cheese, Clodagh McKenna with her Lemon Roasted Chicken and Tagliata Steak, ICA berry pie contest entries, Donohoe’s Foodfare butcher, Mr Muffin Man’s cupcake version of the iconic 99} \u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Another thing I didn’t expect from Cavan is a national award-winning restauranteur and celebrity chef, Neven Maguire of MacNean House<\/span><\/a><\/span>. Word has it his restaurant nestled in the rural village of Blacklion is booked out months in advance. Just like Clodagh, Neven is passionate about local Irish produce and seasonal cooking. He’s charming, fun and a true master of his craft. It was great craic (as they say) watching him teach audience members how to make fancy caramel nests for his luscious desserts. Speaking of dessert, pastry chef Shane Smith<\/span><\/a><\/span> from Dublin gourmet food purveyor Fallon & Byrne<\/span><\/a><\/span> did a couple of fantastic cake demos. It was great to see this Cavan born chef come home and share his craft with the community.<\/p>\n

I met so many interesting people, like Brian McDermott, The Community Chef<\/span><\/a><\/span>, who teaches cookery courses up in Donegal and is known for cooking without salt. Being a chocoholic, I’m thrilled that Cavan has a chocolatier, Ann Rudden of Aine Handmade Chocolate<\/span><\/a><\/span>. I’ve always got one of her dark chocolate bars in my kitchen drawer to nibble on. It’s good to know that I can enjoy local cider all through the autumn and winter with Armagh Cider Company<\/span><\/a><\/span>, and Monica of Finca Tres Fonts (who owns olive trees in Spain), keeps me supplied with olive oil all year round.<\/p>\n

Now that the Taste of Cavan is over I feel it’s so important to retain that sense of excitement for the local food scene of artisanal producers and restaurants. I’m so inspired by the chefs who champion Irish farmers and truly walk their talk when it comes to farm to table. One thing Clodagh McKenna said really stuck with me, “We’ve got to keep the farmer’s markets about the farmers.” It’s a great reminder of what this whole food thing is all about.<\/p>\n

\"Taste<\/p>\n

{Photos: Pastry Chef of Fallon & Byrne-Shane Smith, Neven Maguire and Curried Chicken Spring Rolls, Brian McDermott and his Warm Irish Garden Salad, Armagh Cider, Ann Rudden of Aine Chocolate, Finca Tres Fonts olive oil}<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m feeling very lucky at the moment. When we moved to Cavan Town (population 5,600) I expected lots of rolling hills and sheep. I didn’t expect to find a passionate community of artisanal food producers and chefs in the greater County Cavan (population 52,900). Recently the people of County Cavan came together for the second […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","spay_email":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/dsweb.jessicaotoole.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16445"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/dsweb.jessicaotoole.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/dsweb.jessicaotoole.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/dsweb.jessicaotoole.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/dsweb.jessicaotoole.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16445"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"http:\/\/dsweb.jessicaotoole.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16445\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19194,"href":"http:\/\/dsweb.jessicaotoole.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16445\/revisions\/19194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/dsweb.jessicaotoole.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/dsweb.jessicaotoole.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/dsweb.jessicaotoole.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}