Today I talk about Irish food, food history and identity with Michelin-starred chef Jp McMahon.
Jp is the culinary director of the EatGalway Restaurant Group and runs the restaurant Aniar in Galway, Ireland. He’s the founding chair and director of the Galway Food Festival, Jp is an ambassador for Irish food. He has written several books including the excellent Irish Cook Book published by Phaidon. However, the subject of our discussion was his new book, An Irish Food Story: 100 Foods That Made Us, published by Nine Bean Rows, which delved into Irish food identity, traditions and history.
We talked about food in Ireland versus Irish food, oysters and stout, the deliciousness of seaweed, Irish stew and dulse-flavoured croissants – plus many other things.
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Find Jp on Instagram: @mistereatgalway
Anair website
An Irish Food Story: 100 Foods That Made Us
The Irish Cook Book
An Alphabet of Anair
Things mentioned in today’s episode
The Great Cream Tea Debate on YouTube
BBC Countryfile magazine website
Neil’s blog post and recipe for Bakewell pudding
Upcoming events:
Find out about upcoming events on the website here.
Neil’s blogs:
‘British Food: a History’
‘Neil Cooks Grigson’
Neil’s books:
Before Mrs Beeton: Elizabeth Raffald, England’s Most Influential Housekeeper
A Dark History of Sugar
Knead to Know: a History of Baking
The Philosophy of Puddings
Don’t forget, there will be postbag episodes in the future, so if you have any questions or queries about today’s episode, or indeed any episode, or have a question about the history of British food please email me at neil@britishfoodhistory.com, or on twitter and BlueSky @neilbuttery, or Instagram and Threads dr_neil_buttery. My DMs are open.
You can also join the British Food: a History Facebook discussion page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/britishfoodhistory
