Menu: Cork's latest cocktail bar shakes things up and a foodie event that's not to be missed

Internationally acclaimed chefs include Rasmus Munk of Alchemist; Paolo Casagrande of Laserte; Matt Orlando of Amass; Rafael Cagali of Da Terra; and Ana Roš of Hiša Franko. Also speaking are Simon Rogan, Oli Marlow, Sam Ward, and Tom Barnes. Latin America’s Best Female Chef Manu Buffara of Restaurante Manu in Curitiba, Brazil, combines incredible food with social responsibility and introduces the Manu Buffara Institute, which works to feed, educate and involve vulnerable people in Curitiba. Ghanian chef Selassie Atadika founded The Midunu Institute and the nomadic dining concept Midunu, embodying new African cuisine, and Croatian chef and seafood expert David Skoko is devoted to the importance of preserving tradition and promoting sustainable development. Dan Saladino of BBC’s The Food Programme discusses his multi-award-winning book, Eating to Extinction. There are of course a whole host of Irish food heroes on the bill as well including Brett Stephenson of Wicklow Way Wines; Eoin Cluskey of Bread41; Darina Allen; Jess Murphy (Kai); Lily Ramirez-Foran (Picado Mexican); and Damian Grey (Liath).

• www.foodontheedge.ie

Celebration of organic wine

The Menu had splendid fun the last time he attended one of the exclusive River Lee wine dinners and fancies it will be very much more of the same when Doyle Collection Group Sommelier Philip Dunne welcomes organic winemaker and owner of Château La Baronne, Anne Lignères to the very lovely Grill Room for an evening (October 11) of wine pairings and a multi-course dinner prepared by head chef Paul Lane. The evening will focus on celebrating organic and sustainable wine practices, and drinking some very excellent wines. Tickets are limited.

• theriverclubcork.ie

Get it started

The indefatigable Fanny Leenhardt has several spaces remaining for her next sourdough baking classes (October 15 and November 4) in her Wellbread Baking School, in Ballinhassig, offering a day course of hands-on baking skills enabling you to turn out delicious, nutritious sourdough bread in your own home without recourse to any specialist kit or caboodle.

• www.wellbread.ie

Cocktail bar shakes things up

The Menu has been wearing the black armband of late, in mourning for the departure of a cluster of local hospitality favourites so it is a welcome relief to bring some positive news for a change. A sneak preview of the newly opened Paladar very soon had The Menu believing that he was looking at next year’s winner of Irish Cocktail Bar of the Year, though several weeks ago, it was still largely a building site. A collaboration between award-winning cocktail superstar Andy Ferreira, of Cask, just around the corner, and Cask’s owner, Richard Evans (also of Greene’s), the new bar is a Latin American-style cocktail bar featuring a whole range of splendid libations from that part of the world, with cocktail ingenue Oisin Wolfe set to add a savage local twist. Talented chef Nascimento Nunes will be knocking out a complementary menu from the slick new basement kitchen. The bar is a sublime creation in itself and once the wheels of steel are in full effect, The Menu fancies this will be one of the hottest party spots in town.

• www.paladar.ie

TODAY’S SPECIAL

On a recent skite to Castlegregory, The Menu and one of his finest comrades were returning from a bracing and near medicinal promenade on the beach, when they chanced upon a little stall at the side of the road in the middle of the lovely village Matt Kyhnn and his wife Maura, where they were selling their Acumeen Farm eggs. As they were pullets’ eggs they were on the smaller side, but as The Menu found out on his return home, they pack a mighty punch, perhaps short on egg white but sporting big, deep-yellow yolks flush with rich flavour.

Maura is a Kerrywoman responsible for Matt, a son of Ohio, fetching up in rural West Kerry. Together they farm 40 acres of land, employing a regenerative model which The Menu believes is the only mode of agriculture that is truly sustainable for the future of global farming. This entails a mixed farming model of livestock and crops on land that is subjected to no chemical interventions whatsoever and the eggs come from Matt’s own “eggmobile”, a moveable unit which he is able to shift around the farm and that they hope will become the basis of a thriving poultry business, in addition to the lambs and Dexter cattle they also rear.

While they may be more than a step from The Menu’s own neck of the woods and hardly likely to feature on his weekly shopping list, they are a splendid example of what a small producer can achieve if properly supported by the local community and The Menu urges all to seek out same in their own vicinity.

In addition, Acumeen Farm is part of the newly launched and highly commendable Bia Dingle Food Network, a dynamic, collaborative, food-focused association representing the whole of the Dingle Peninsula, including farmers, fishers, producers, growers, foragers, chefs, restaurateurs, hosts, guides, and more.

• www.biadingle.ie & www.acumeenfarm.ie