Credit where it's due: The Wheeler family's Rathmullan House, on the shores of Lough Swilly in Donegal, wowed Electric Picnic-goers with its fantastic food, winning the Bridgestone Guide Greenest Gourmet award for eco-friendliness.
“We chose them because we were impressed by their determination to use only local fish, landed from day boats, because the marine environment is the most stressed of all our food resources,” said judge Sally McKenna. This week Rathmullan House was back in the limelight, taking the top accolade at the Good Food Ireland awards. The 32-bedroom quintessential Irish country house was given the Top Overall Member award at a prize-giving lunch at The K Club in Straffan on Tuesday. The awards honour shops, hotels, guest houses and restaurants that are committed to making the most of local Irish food, and Rathmullan, with its bountiful walled kitchen garden, is outstanding in this regard. Head chef Ian Orr is running a series of cookery classes in the hotel’s kitchens at the moment, and a two-night BB and one dinner package costs €225 in October, if you want to see what the fuss is about. The full list of award winners is at www.goodfoodireland.ie.
A Knuttel idea: They may not be to everyone's taste, but a straw poll in the office revealed that a few of us either owned – "I bought it when they only cost £400," boasted a colleague – or once aspired to owning a Graham Knuttel painting. Whether we want plates, cups and bowls to match our artwork remains to be seen.
Tipperary Crystal’s new range of ceramics decorated by Knuttel will be available from the company’s stockists nationwide. A set of four espresso cups costs €65.
Butter them up: Pillow menus, water menus . . . could butter menus be the next big thing for restaurants? Revered New York Timesrestaurant critic Frank Bruni, in his final column for the newspaper last month, made reference to the "bread with both goat's milk and cow's milk" he was offered at an upscale Manhattan restaurant. The best selection of butters I've come across is in MS, where you can now find the trendy French Échiré butter (€3.99), which carries the AOC Beurre des Deux-Sèvres and comes in a cute little wooden pail. MS Brittany butter with crunchy sea-salt crystals (€2.49) is also delicious, and the range also includes farmhouse butter, Jersey butter and goat's milk butter.
This little piggy . . . went to Ballymaloe: Master butcher and chef Philip Dennhardt and Ted Berner of Wildside Catering are bringing their "Pig in a Day" roadshow back to the Garden Cafe at Ballymaloe Cookery School in Co Cork next Saturday, and there are still a few places available (€140, including morning coffee and lunch). Farmer Noreen Conroy will open the full-day course with a talk on rearing free-range pigs. Dennhardt will then demonstrate how to butcher a pig, with absolutely no waste, and Berner will lay on a pig roast for lunch. The afternoon session will be devoted to transforming raw pork into sausages, bacon, salami, guanciale and pancetta. Book with Ted Berner, tel: 086-8681863. mcdigby@irishtimes.com