Producers of The EATcork Festival
The inaugural EATCork Festival starts tomorrow and runs until Sunday. It’s an independent food festival run by two great people, Roseanne Kidney and Dianne Curtin. I can’t wait if only because the very fact that it’s on, that’s its happening, has materialised, fills me with hope – two independent spirits have struck a blow against the doubters and those that think nothing can happen without large benefactors or government support.
I know it’s been alot of work, stress, heartache and learning on the go but for the first time Cork – the supposed food capital of Ireland – is actually going to have an event that reflects the wealth of produce lovingly created by small artisan producers in this county. For once those producers are going to be honoured. This will not be a food festival in which they get fleeced by event organisers looking to make a quick buck, will not be a festival in which they get subsumed by large brands and sponsored soirees attended by the great and the good, will not be a festival in which government state agencies and the local authority swoop in and take plaudits for doing nothing. No, this time it’s all about them, for them, for culture.
I for one can’t wait to attend, eat, look, smell, taste, learn, taste, eat and then eat some more. There will be workshops in bread making, learning about cheap cuts of meat, cake decorating, sausage making, fish preparation, butchering, tasting menus in various restaurants and at Corks world famous English Market, amateur producer competitions, a street food market, food tours and to cap it all off a divine 6 course dinner on Sunday night. I’m salivating already.
Perhaps it is a lesson to us all in these days of ill wind. If you have an idea and someone to play with then just get to it, do it. Everybody is in the same boat which makes it easier to get a loan of something, a favour, a helping hand. For the truth is – well in my experience – what goes around comes around and those that do now will be ahead of the rest of us when the gloom lifts and the possibility of a future manifests itself once more
For more details on EATcork go to www.facebook.com/eatcork
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