Cork gets its own food festival once more
I am delighted that Cork has once again its very own food festival – Cork on a Fork, which was launched last week. The five day festival has a long list of scheduled events with Maharani Afternoon Tea in the Metropole Hotel being my favourite standout (just because I love afternoon tea and gin).
Other events include Harley StrEAT BBQ, guided food trail, podcast with Ballymaloe Foods and pizza making workshops to name just a few.
I am especially impressed by the sustainable aspect of the festival with a Dine & Stay Sustainable Dinner in the Imperial Hotel and Cookbook Recycle event (which is of great importance to me as I am collecting cookbooks for a number of years now and might need to part with some of them to make room for more - there’s only so many my house can fit in).
The Tasting Trail is a great way to eat your way around Cork and shouldn’t be missed. Head over to www.corkcity.ie/en/cork-on-a-fork-fest/ to see the full programme and to book tickets. The festival is taking place from 17 to 21 August in different venues around Cork city.
In other food news, UCC Specialty Food Production Diploma Course is accepting applications from people who either are already producing food or are having an idea they like to explore.
Dr Angela Sheehan is in charge of the course since its beginning and has helped many food producers on their successful path. The year-long part-time course is divided into online and classroom sessions throughout the academic year with lecturers from UCC as well guest lecturers from the industry – field trips are also part of the course which makes for interesting studying.
This course – although part-time – is not for the fainthearted as you are working on assignments in marketing, food safety and more.
One of the best aspects of the course is the networking opportunity participants have with each other that enables them not only to learn together but also from each other.
I am a strong believer of partnerships across different companies/producers to grow together – as they say ‘strength in numbers’.
This course is unique to Ireland and past participants included farmers who wanted to diverse, food start-ups who wanted to grow their business and everything in between. The course is highly subsidised by the Department for Agriculture which shows the importance of the course and how respected it has become in the industry.
The application process is easy enough but you need to fulfil some requirements like filling out a questionnaire outlining why you want to join the course, your experience and your ambitions – the number of participants is limited, so these answers can determine who is getting in as admission is not on a first come first served basis. For more details and the link to the online application go to www.ucc.ie/en/ace-dsfp/. Deadline for applications is 23 September.