Get free admission to the Big Grill festival when you join our exclusive event

The Big Grill Festival, a four-day celebration of the ancient art of cooking over fire, takes over leafy Herbert Park in Dublin 4 next week, and we would like to invite you to a special session of the Woodfired Canteen seven-course banquet with drinks pairings.

Staged in the private OFFSIDE area, the event will be hosted by Donegal-born Ben Quinn. Quinn and his Woodfired Canteen team travel all over Europe hosting long table dinners in the great outdoors, cooking over fire.

Irish Times Food & Drink subscribers are being offered exclusive early access to tickets to the event, which is limited to 30 guests. It takes place on Thursday at 4.30pm, and you can read the full menu and drinks pairings here. Tickets are €55 (plus booking fee) and include a complimentary Big Grill general admission ticket. Both together would usually cost €79 (plus booking fee).

To book tickets, go to www.biggrillfestival.com/tickets. At the top of the ticket section, where it says “Promo Code”, enter the code ITGRILL23, then click “Apply”. The complimentary admission ticket option with OFFSIDE purchase will then appear as: Irish Times Thurs 17th - Gen Admission + OFFSIDE (4pm).

Winners, winners and more winners

This month we have two lovely prizes to be won by subscribers to the Irish Times Food & Drink Club. The Eccles Hotel & Spa in Glengarriff, Co Cork is offering one subscriber the chance to win a luxurious overnight night stay, for two people, including breakfast, a three-course dinner from head chef Eddie Attwell, a sea spa experience and full thermal spa garden access at the Spa at Eccles. You can enter here. Dinner for four at Neighbourhood restaurant in Naas, Co Kildare is also up for grabs and you can enter here.

Congratulations to Paul Mangan, who won a food lover’s getaway at Ballyvolane House, Cork, and to Gillian Hickie, who won a tour and tasting at Ahascragh Distillery, Co Galway, in last month’s newsletter.

Read all about it

In this weekend’s Irish Times Magazine, Corinna Hardgrave is full of praise for the hand-pulled noodles at Afanti, the new Uyghur restaurant in Dublin 1, and eating top-notch lobster from a food truck in Co Clare. In our recipe section, chef Gráinne O’Keefe is writing about how she creates healthier versions of comfort food favourites. There are interviews with four of the women who are headlining at next week’s Big Grill festival, who also share some of their favourite barbecue recipes. Lilly Higgins digs her own spuds and cooks them with fish and mushy peas and John Wilson has suggestions for low-alcohol red wines for summer.

Check in with us regularly at irishtimes.com/food for all the latest food and drink news, features and great dishes to cook. If you would like to invite family and friends to join The Irish Times Food & Drink Club, they can do so here. You can also follow us on Facebook here and on Instagram here.

Thanks for reading.

Marie-Claire Digby