Food For Thought

Ballymaloe LitFest 2015

Already highly-anticipated, the third Kerrygold Ballymaloe Literary Festival of Food and Wine runs from 15th-17th May 2015, and tickets for the event go on sale on 7th January.

From world-famous chefs to boutique coffee roasters, guerrilla gardeners to polished restaurateurs, cocktail specialists to renowned wine makers, the unique international approach of the Kerrygold Ballymaloe Literary Festival of Food and Wine 2015 brings together yet another awesome lineup of fascinating and intriguing food and drink focused speakers.

Alice Waters – Photo by Amanda Marsalis

One of the biggest names participating in the LitFest this year is American culinary pioneer, Alice Waters. Waters many books include The Art of Simple Food and 40 Years of Chez Panisse: The Power of Gathering. She is chef, proprietor of Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California, and a passionate advocate for a food economy that is ‘good, clean, and fair’. Described as a visionary, ‘the mother of American cooking’ and ‘the most important figure in the culinary history of North America’, Alice Waters is certainly one of the most influential figures in American cooking of the last 50 years.

April Bloomfield – Photo by Melanie Dunea

Chef April Bloomfield, the English-born superstar chef of New York’s Michelin-starred The Spotted Pig and The Breslin, as well as The John Dory Oyster Bar and Salvation Taco in NYC and her most recent restaurant Tosca in San Francisco, has also spoken of the impact of experiencing growing food as a child in her cookbook/memoir A Girl and Her Pig. She takes part in next May’s Kerrygold Ballymaloe Literary Festival of Food and Wine too, soon after her next book – A Girl and Her Greens – comes out.

Also featuring is one of London’s most eminent restaurateurs Mark Hix, who has 9 fantastically successful establishments including Hix Oyster & Chop House in Smithfield, a monthly column in Esquire, a weekly column in The Independent, as well as being the author of 9 well-received cookbooks on British cuisine including Hix Oyster & Chop House and British Regional Food, which received a Guild of Food Writers’ Award and the André Simon Book Award.

The award-winning authors and chefs, Sam and Sam Clark, owners of Moro and Morito tapas & mezze bar in London, introduced a distinctly British style of Iberian-with-a-North-African-twist Mediterranean cooking back in 1997 and will also be part of LitFest 2015. Their series of 3 cookbooks from Moro and a recent first from Morito are full of warm and engaging writing and famously easy to follow recipes.

The Kerrygold Ballymaloe Literary Festival of Food and Wine 2014 was another electrifying and educational event in a fabulous setting, with a relaxed and magical atmosphere throughout the weekend, and next year’s programme will be just as eclectic, inspirational and full of amazing authors, fine writing, passionate expertise and accessible knowledge.

The full Kerrygold Ballymaloe Literary Festival of Food and Wine 2015 programme will be finalised by the end of the year, so get in early to book the LitFest events of your choice on January 7th of next year.

In addition to the main events (which come at a wide range of prices from €15 to €95), a fringe programme of free events will once again be held in the Big Shed. With a wonderful food market, fun activities for children, craft stalls, art installations, live music and more, the fringe at the Big Shed promises education and entertainment to gourmets of all ages.

For more information, please call the Litfest office on 00353 21 4645777, email info@litfest.ie or check out the website www.litfest.ie.