The Celtic Food Revival: Our love letter to Irish cuisine
Irish food hasn’t had the easiest time.
Often (and unfairly) labelled bland, and still viewed in the shadow of the Great Famine, Irish cuisine continues to battle against the stereotypes of poverty, potatoes and pints.
However, it always had the right ingredients (pun intended) to take on the big hitters of the gastro-world with its temperate climate, fertile land and bountiful waters. With the help of a growing number of creative and skilled Irish chefs, the cuisine is shedding its dusty image and reintroducing itself to the world with a fresh look.
The first culture to sail across the Irish sea and settle on the Emerald Isle were hunter-gatherers, but what they would have seen upon arrival would’ve been quite different to the pasture land Ireland has become known for.
As an arboreal island, almost 80% of Ireland was covered by forests a few thousand years ago - some even say a squirrel could have travelled from one end of the Island to the other without touching the ground!.
In this prehistoric landscape, the early Irish peoples fed themselves on foraged berries, seeds and roots like wild garlic. The meat on offer to those willing to hunt would have been mainly smaller mammals like shrew and squirrel, some red deer and game birds such as partridge.
In a time before carts, wheels and even horses, the most efficient mode of travel was by boat - moving along the river ways and coastline. This naturally led to a keen knowledge of seafood amongst the early Irish - mussels, scallops and fish all being on the prehistoric menu (not to mention the plentiful seaweed - but you can read more about this here!)
Despite a temperate climate, loamy soil and plenty of rain, many associate Ireland’s food with the Famine and tales of a nation thrown into poverty and starvation.
However, when critiquing the cuisine, historians have often shied away from archives and sources written in the Irish language, the result is a warped view of the country’s culinary heritage. Recently, however, a new wave of historians are revisiting the subject, revealing a more nuanced and authentic view on Ireland’s food history beyond potatoes, stew and cabbage.
The potential for Ireland to compete on the world food stage has been there all along, with its long standing cultural tradition of good hospitality, a producer of quality ingredients (hence the island’s nickname as the “natural larder”) and a history of craftsmanship from smoked salmon to farmhouse cheeses.
