If you’re thinking about how to spend your Easter bank holiday weekend, Dee Laffan suggests that a good idea for a fun-filled weekend would be to head west for the fourth annual Galway Food Festival, taking place from Thursday 2nd to Monday 6th April.
The five-day event celebrates all things foodie in Galway and aims to showcase Galway city and county, Connemara and the Aran Islands’ unique food produce, traditions and restaurants to local, national and international audiences.
Derry Clarke, proprietor of L’Ecrivain Michelin star restaurant, Dublin, will open this year’s festival on Thursday 2nd April and also starts the live cooking demonstrations on Friday 3rd April with seafood recipes compiled especially for the festival.
Over 70,000 people attended last year’s festival, with over 100 food outlets and producers from across the city and county taking part.
In addition to the annual festival village, markets, cookery demos and events here are some of the highlights you can expect to see:
- Wild Atlantic Way Food Tours – Aran Island Food Tour including a visit to an Aran Goat’s cheese farm, guided tour of the Island and seaweed foraging; Honey, Ail and Oysters Food Tour to Clarinbridge including a visit to Kelly’s oyster farm, an apiary and Galway Hooker Brewery; and Foraging on the Wild Atlantic Way Food Tour including a seaside walk and demonstration.
- Recipes for Enterprise – Food business development workshop with Egg and Chicken, Ruth Hegarty’s food project management and consultancy company, and Bank of Ireland.
Dinner Cruise on Lough Corrib with Cava Galway and The Corrib Princess.
Hunter Gatherer Feast at Cambridge’s featuring Boris and Rodrigo Leite Poco from Sauvage Paleo Restaurant, Berlin.
Butter Making for Kid’s with Jessica Murphy from Kai Cafe and Restaurant. - Talking Food & Farming – chef Sasu Laukkonen from Chef and Sommelier Restaurant, Helsinki, talks ‘No waste cooking’; Douglas McMaster from Silo Restaurant, Bakery and Coffee House, Brighton – the UK’s only zero-waste restaurant – talks about pre-industrial food system cooking; and Boris and Rodrigo Leite-Poco, Sauvage restaurant, Berlin talk about eating as nature intended and opening the world’s first Paleo restaurant.
Breaking Bread: Demystifying Sourdough – Real Bread Ireland presents The Story of Sourdough; from Grain to Loaf. - Breaking Ground: The Future of Farming in the West – A panel discussion on “Land and Livelihoods along the Wild Atlantic Way” with Seamus Sheridan, Agriculture and Food spokesperson The Green Party and Aine Macken-Walsh, Teagasc Rural Economy and Development Programme.
- The Woodquay Country Market returns again with an impressive line-up of quality food producers and farmers. The market will also host a ‘A Teddy Bears Picnic’ where children can bring their favourite teddy bear and enjoy dining al fresco with a live DJ providing music for all the family to enjoy.
For more, visit: www.galwayfoodfestival.com / @Galwayfood or like Galway Food Festival on Facebook.