Journey through Ireland’s culinary past
Irish Food History: A Companion was the winner of Best Culinary History Book in the World in 2024.
Published by the Royal Irish Academy and edited by TU Dublin’s Máirtín Mac Con Iomaire and Dorothy Cashman, it is the fruit of many years of research and learning.
On Saturday, October 10, at 5.30pm in the Abbey Court Hotel, Peter Ward, proprietor of Country Choice will host a discussion on Irish Food History: A Companion with author, chef, scholar & linguist Mairtín Mac Con Iomaire; author and academic Dorothy Cashman, and three times James Beard award-winning chef Robb Walsh. Tickets, €25, including a glass of wine and a seafood plate. This event is part of the Dromineer Nenagh Literary Festival.
Enlightening, entertaining and often surprising, Irish Food History: A Companion takes you on an unforgettable and expert journey through Ireland’s culinary past. Beginning at the end of the Ice Age, before reindeer, brown bears, and the giant Irish deer became extinct, this vital and brilliantly researched collection brings us forward from the introduction of farming and livestock, to the delicious world of medieval honey, banqueting, bog butter, whiskey distilling, to eighteenth century feasts, famines, and on to the modernisation, industrialisation, and eventual globalisation of food.
Irish Food History: A Companion brings the reader on a gastronomic odyssey from earliest times and the start of the hunter-gatherer community, all the way to the abundant world of modern Irish cooking, safe in the hands of the world’s most highly regarded food historians. Whether you are a seasoned ‘foodie’ or a novice in the kitchen - this event is for you.
The festival is delighted to welcome three-time James Beard award-winner Robb Walsh, who has written more than a dozen books on food. His latest, Braised, Simmered & Stewed from Chronicle Books San Francisco will be released in January 2027. Walsh is a co-founder of Foodways Texas at the University of Texas and Barbecue Summer Camp at Texas A&M. He currently resides in New Quay, County Clare.
This event is kindly sponsored by the Abbey Court Hotel.