2007-02-07 The Victorians had a very clear world view and man's place in it was unquestionable - man was the Crown of Creation. Mankind was set apart from the rest of creation not just by virtue of his God-given place, but because only man had intelligence and only man had language. Man was unique in the universe More>>

2007-02-07 For people who like prize-giving, this is a good time of year. There's the Golden Globes, the Oscars, and for foodies, the newest edition of the Michelin Guide. As soon as it hits the bookshops there's a stampede to see who got a star and of course, who lost one. This year no one lost a star in Ireland, but a new one was created. More>>

2007-02-03 This week I had a couple of days driving around the midlands. I don't know if it was global warming, but on both days there were spells of sunshine which made the countryside sparkle in the low winter sun. My first port of call was Tullamore, which I haven't visited for years. Back in the 80s I used to go to visit my old friend Vincent Slevin who lived near Tullamore in a charming and haunted old house outside Clonaslee. At the time he was working for D.E. Williams and Co., the people who make Irish Mist liqueur, so what I remember best was sitting late into the night with Vincent drinking the sticky Mist.

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2007-01-27 When is fish fresh? Well, obviously when it's pulled gasping and flapping from the sea. But can you and me get fresh fish? The answer is not surprising. You can if you're a fisherman. If you're not a fisherman and you get your fish from a shop, then bear in mind that modern trawlers spend weeks at sea before disgorging their catch in port. They didn't catch all their fish on the last day. The fish they caught at the start of the trip are kept on ice until the trawler finds port. More>>

2007-01-20 A good espresso is hard to find. What makes an espresso - as opposed to a small black coffee - is the crema. That's the light brown foam that you ought to find on the top of your espresso. If it's not there, or if it's just barely discernible, then you don't have an espresso - you have a cup of black coffee.. If a barman handed you a pint of Guinness with no head on it, would you accept it? It's the same with an espresso; if it has no crema you shouldn't accept it. Why it should be so hard to find a real espresso is a mystery to me. Expensive espresso machines abound in coffee shops, all kinds of Italian coffee can be bought easily, so why do so many places sell nasty, thin black liquid with no crema that they describe as an ‘espresso'? And to add insult to injury, it can cost you over €2. More>>

2007-01-13 Although I've lived in Ireland now for most of my life, there's a national habit that I've never really adopted. I'm not a pub man. That very Irish custom of using the pub as a meeting point, as a place to escape from the home or as a place for entertainment, never became one of my habits. That's not to say I avoid them, I don't, but when I think about it the pubs I go to all have comfortable chairs, tables and food, so they're more like restaurants.

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2007-01-06 In mid December I found myself in Athlone with fellow restaurant reviewer Tom Doorley. We were staying there as we began the filming of a new series of ‘The Restaurant', and with our evenings taken up with the serious business of judging the celebrity chefs, we had two free afternoons to fill. It'll be no surprise to you then that we had the same idea as to how to spend this free time - trying out restaurants.

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2007-01-02 Funny isn't it, all the manic preparations for Christmas seem as though they took place ages ago. That pre-Christmas build-up is so decidedly stressful that when it's over there's a truly profound sense of relief. We really put ourselves through the mill getting ready for that one festive meal. I think I made at least five final, definitely last shopping trips, each time telling myself that this was it, no more trips to the shops, only to find I was still missing something. The last trip was to buy celery. Thinking about it now I can't imagine what made me think that Christmas would be ruined without celery. Would anyone have said ‘that was a great spread Paolo, but how come you didn't have any celery?' More>>

2006-12-30 It's been a good year for Irish restaurants: the economy has remained buoyant and consumers are still spending. Established restaurants continue to flourish and a raft of new ones has opened. Looking back over the year I've had a few poor meals but only one bad one, which confirms my belief that overall standards are still rising. More>>

2006-12-21 As Irish dining standards soar ever higher, more and more outstanding restaurants are springing up across the country. But which are the best? Choosing a favourite restaurant is a fraught affair. A restaurant that gave me a spectacular meal three months earlier could well have changed in that time. The chef could have moved, the management might have changed, the staff will certainly have moved on all elements that can alter the general state of the restaurant. More>>

2006-12-16 There are things that annoy me in restaurants, not so much as to cause apoplexies of rage, just irritants. The one I hate most is when I sit at a table and a waiter asks me ‘would you like to see a menu?' Of course I bloody would. What kind of a question is that? Am I supposed to guess what's on offer? So you grumpily say ‘yes please' and the answer comes back ‘no problem.‘ Of course it's not a bloody problem. What kind of a restaurant would have a problem bringing you a menu? Actually you could make a pretty good stab at guessing the menu in most restaurants - there will be a goats' cheese starter, there will some kind of duck breast for a main course and there will be some kind of crème brulée for dessert. On that you can rely. More>>

2006-12-09 In July 1953 a group of men, headed by Orio Vergani, gathered in the Hotel Diana in Milan and founded the Accademia Italiana della Cucina, or the Italian Academy of Cookery. They shared a belief that gastronomic culture and the civilisation of the table are part of a country's culture, a reflection of that society's values. More than fifty years later the Accademia is still thriving, its two main elements being a force for education and also a repository of skills and recipes More>>

2006-10-28 I've just spent three days exploring Piedmont, the region in Italy's Northwest that's centred on Turin. Italy's best known red wines come from here - Barolo and Barbaresco - and the most prestigious truffle of them all, the white truffle, is traded in Alba, which is also in Piedmont. What's not so well known about this region is that it's where the Slow Food movement started and it's where Ferrero Rocher make those little sweeties that ambassadors spoil their guests with. More>>

2006-10-21 You may have heard the phrase ‘journalistic ethics'. I've been hearing it all my life and have always had a rather fuzzy idea of what it meant. I've been on the sharp end of tabloid doorstepping and I've seen stories in print that I personally know for sure are untrue, so the exact meaning of that phrase has always eluded me. As a journalist myself I do have moments of soul-searching, which I suppose could be the fore-runner to a fit of ethical behaviour. More>>

2006-10-14 It's been a long-tine complaint of mine that it's hard to get good sea-food on the east coast. It's a puzzle to me - that's where most people live, so you'd expect to find the biggest demand there. Yet restaurants that specialise in fish are few in Dublin and its surroundings. Maybe as fish gets rarer and pricier as the oceans get depleted by over fishing, it might just come back into fashion for those who enjoy conspicuous consumption of luxury foods. More>>

2006-10-07 All things come to those who wait - I finally got a table in Rhodes D7. Well, more precisely Isobel Smith did and she was my dining companion, so I tagged along on her booking. It had been a good day, I'd been to the opening day of the Ryder Cup and had done a lot more walking than my portly frame is used to. As a result by evening I'd built up a decent appetite. Getting back from Kildare to the city centre could easily have been a nightmare of traffic, but thankfully I was giving Tomas Clancy a lift and he knew all the rat runs, consequently I was parked on the quays with time to spare before our booking.

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2006-09-30 Many years ago when my children were young I used to do what most sane people would have described as ‘inadvisable'. Once a year I'd put two small offspring in the back seat of my car and then I'd drive them and their mother to south of Rome. It doesn't matter how you choose to break that up - it's a long drive. Small children get very bored on long drives, as indeed do wives, so the big reward for being good passengers was the promise of a fine meal to end each day.

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2006-09-23 The foodie press has been well filled over the past couple of months with the news of Gary Rhodes's new restaurant in Capel Street called D7. Gary is without doubt one of the most personable of the celebrity chefs and a talented cook as well. If you've been wondering why I haven't reviewed his restaurant yet there's a simple answer - I haven't been able to get a booking. I've tried twice now and on each occasion I've had the same answer - ‘Sorry, we're booked up.' On the face of it that's a little surprising since I tend to dine mid-week and the restaurant reputedly holds 250 diners, but still, there you are. More>>

2006-09-16 Because Ireland is an island, there's only one way to get your car to the continent, and that's by ferry. I've done every one of them, direct to France and through the UK. I've done hovercrafts and the channel tunnel as well, but for the past five years I've gone from Ireland to France direct for the sheer ease of it. This year I decided to try two ferry companies, one outbound and one inbound, to check out what visitors to this island get to eat when they arrive and when they leave. More>>

2006-09-16 Because Ireland is an island, there's only one way to get your car to the continent, and that's by ferry. I've done every one of them, direct to France and through the UK. I've done hovercrafts and the channel tunnel as well, but for the past five years I've gone from Ireland to France direct for the sheer ease of it. This year I decided to try two ferry companies, one outbound and one inbound, to check out what visitors to this island get to eat when they arrive and when they leave. More>>