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Beyond The Plate at Beyond The Pale

Debbra Szafryk 2 years ago 3 min read

Beyond The Plate is a celebration of all things food & drink at Beyond The Pale. Festival goers can feast from some of the best Irish street food vendors and enjoy a stellar line-up of talks, tastings, chats, demos and craic on the dedicated food & drink stage.

This summer the Beyond The Plate stage, curated and hosted by food writer Ali Dunworth will focus on food folklore, feasting and festivals, welcoming a wide and interesting range of cooks, chefs, thinkers, tastemakers and creators over the weekend. Food and drink are intrinsically linked to rural and pagan calendars and in turn to festivals so we’ll be paying tribute to this and looking back at the beginnings of how we eat and feast and Ireland and further afield.

Storytelling has always gone hand in hand with food and folklore so we’ll weave the scéal of feasting in Ireland with comedian, storyteller and artist Hugh Cooney, aka Folklord. Michelin-starred chef, restaurateur and author JP McMahon will combine an excerpt from his play Irish Food (with actors!) and a live cooking demo. We’ve two brilliant live podcasts over the weekend – Emer & Esther’s Sunday Roast with Emer McLysaght and Esther O’Moore Donohoe, chatting all about the joy of roast potatoes and carvery lunches and podcast legends, Sophie White, Jen O’Dwyer and Cassie Delaney will share weird, wonderful and probably downright wrong tales about feasting and festivals for a very special live recording of their podcast The Creep Dive.

We’ll explore parallel feasting cultures from around the world with Victory Nwabu-Ekeoma editor of Bia! Zine sharing Nigerian festival tales, Sheelan Yousefizadeh from “Cook For Iran” will explore Persian feasting, food writer Vritti Bansal will delve into food rituals and faith and the brilliant trio of food writers and Blasta book authors Blanca Valencia, Dee Laffan and Mei Chin will discuss (and taste) soups of the world.

We will explore the history, culture and folklore of food, and how it has become woven into our lives and reflected in modern Ireland with experts (and tasters) including historian and author of ‘Irish Customs and Rituals’ Marion McGarry and chef and PhD student Caitríona Nic Philibín whose research focuses on food in Irish folklore. We’ll get the best insights into Irish food past and present with well-known chefs including Kevin Thornton, Mark Jennings, butcher Jess Kelly and baker Graham Herterich. Sarah McGree, The Wild Grazer, will explore our love of sharing boards, barbecue expert Andy Noonan will chat all things fire and festivals. Local Wicklow forager and wild food expert Courtney Tyler will tell all about her month of only eating wild foods. We’ll also explore Irish cheese history, our love of funeral food and plenty more.

It’s not a festival without drinks and tunes of course, Marcus O’Laoire aka DJ Hollandaise will bring a taste of his kitchen disco, and there will be Irish drink chats with Aoife Carrigy, Rory Craig (Station to Station Wine) on winelore, Dave Mulligan (Bar 1661) on poitín, tastings with Shane Murphy (Neighbourhood Wine), tasters from local Wicklow brewery Rí-Rá and plenty more TBA.

Festival goers will be kept fed and watered all weekend by a fun and tasty lineup of food and drinks. The White Hag making the trip over from Sligo to pour a delicious selection of beers and Craft Cocktails are back with their top-notch libations after their hugely successful debut last year. There will be plenty of feasting done too with some top Irish food names cooking over the weekend including Happy’s, Órale, Bish Bosh, The Big Blue Bus, Little Dumpling, Kerala Kitchen and lots more.

Come join us and tantalise your taste buds in the stunning surrounds of Glendalough estate.

For more info tickets and full line-up for Beyond The Plate, check out www.itsbeyondthepale.ie