The Big Grill is one of Europe's top barbecue festivals.
Big Grill hits the Big Smoke
It’s been a hectic few weeks for The Menu as he saddles up Neidín for another road trip, this time to the Big Smoke for the largest ever outing for the very excellent Big Grill BBQ & Food Festival this weekend: four days of cooking over only live fire, nary a gas hob or an electric induction ring to be found on the entirety of the site.
The Big Grill now ranks as one of the very best BBQ festivals to be found on the European circuit with a panoply of star names from the international world of barbecue fetching up in Dublin’s Herbert Park including Chris Lilly and the Big Bob Gibson Bar-B-Q Competition Cooking Team (winners of 17 World BBQ Championships) and a whole host more star names to numerous to mention, although The Menu will tip the hat to Neil Rankin’s new plant-based venture Symplicity Foods, reckoning we have only scratched the surface of the potential of vegetables and fruit cooked over fire.
He also gives an especial shout out to Wexford-based Smokin’ Soul, break out stars over the August Bank Holiday weekend at the Grub Circus tent at All Together Now music festival.
There’s also plenty of homegrown talent including Reggie’s Pizza Party, Damien Grey’s two Michelin-starred Liath, Aishling Moore from Goldie in Cork, Mister S, Reyna, Hang Dai, Chimac, Bahay, Our Table, Bites by Kwanghi, AA’s Caribbean, B-Skewers, Los Chicanos, and Pitt Bros. Drinks and beverage offerings are top notch including Irish craft beers, wines and superb cocktails.
In addition, there’s a large programme of live entertainment and talks, tastings, demos and masterclasses and for those tiring of the crowds, the option of springing for a premium Rancho Relaxo ticket to access a brand new and exclusive area within the festival offering a private bar, fire pits, guaranteed seating (unreserved), DJs, garden games, posh loos and two complimentary drinks on arrival. You’ll also get fast-track entry to the festival via the dedicated Rancho Relaxo lane
The Menu is especially delighted to reveal details of the upcoming Food for Thought dining initiative in aid of 3TS, the suicide prevention charity, an initiative especially close to his heart, with tickets going on sale on August 15 for the next event (Sept 3) with a series of top restaurants including Liath, Library Street, Michael’s, Uno Mas, Variety Jones, Mister S, and Rosa Madre, involved and offering a premium menu for a cost of just €150 for 2 people (€75 pp).
Tickets will be sold on EventBrite, limited to just one table per restaurant, with restaurants allocated randomly in a blind sale upon purchase, all adding to the excitement. It is hoped to take the initiative around the country over the coming months but, in the meantime, this is an excellent excuse for a trip to the capital.
Arriving next week and pitched as a trial run for a more in-depth event next year is Cork on a Fork food festival (Aug 17-21) taking place around Cork city and including a long table dinner on Princes Street. Amongst the events to catch The Menu’s eye are a selection of initiatives from the Market Lane group centred around their colourful hub at the intersection of Oliver Plunkett St and Beasley St, including Elbow Lane Smokehouse & Brewery throwing open its doors where head brewer Russell Garrett will host tutored beer tastings with cost including a t-shirt. They will be working with their local food bank and will be serving freshly made meals there throughout the festival. The group has amalgamated with several other local hospitality outfits (Filter, Greenwich and The Bookshelf) to produce a Disloyalty Card for coffee drinkers with every fifth coffee free.
Top choice for The Menu will be a one-off pop-up dinner at The Bookshelf at the Elysian (Aug 20) where the very lovely little daytime cafe’s talented chef Rebekah Harrington will really get to strut her culinary stuff with a special four-course dinner including Kinsale Meads and natural wines.
A tour around Skibbereen Farmer’s market is always a most splendid pleasure for The Menu and, on more than a few occasions, the place where he discovers some fine new premium Irish foodstuff, and on a recent bright and sunny Saturday morn, a casual perambulation first fuelled by super coffee from Shane ‘Red Strand’ Kelleher, found him by the Lost Valley Dairy & Creamery stall with Darcie Mayland at the helm.
The Menu is a long-time fan of Mike Parle and Darcie Mayland’s evocatively monikered dairy operation, based in Inchegeelah, in West Cork, where they farm a tiny holding with just eight cattle, a mix of Shorthorn and Drummond, and are apparently the only cheesemakers in the country using their own starter culture of raw milk from the shorthorns, natural rennet and sea salt.
He is especially partial to their raw milk Carrignamuc cheese, which has evolved from intriguing beginnings to a truly splendid addition to the Irish Farmhouse Cheese canon. But on this particular morn, alongside the aforementioned Carrignamuc, Darcie also had a more recent addition to their repertoire: Sobhriste (Irish for easily broken, fragile, brittle), an apt name for this slightly crumbly, chalky young cheese.
On the palate it has notes of fermented country butter and a sweet, lactic tang with a pleasant damp plaster mustiness to the rind that combines for a creamy, nutty mouthful, the class of fine cheese that renders most accompaniments superfluous other than the nicely chilled sweet riesling spatlese with which The Menu washed it all down.
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