Tasty new Food Festival for Sligo Town
Brand new this year is the Taste of Sligo Food Festival in Sligo town’s flagship Queen Maeve Square along the Garavogue River on the Wild Atlantic Way. The brainchild of food guru Anthony Gray it will bring the cream of top chefs and food producers to the town on Saturday, 21st and Sunday, 22nd of September 2024. Cookery demonstrations, al fresco dining, live music plus a host of artisan food stalls and food trucks will all compete for attention in the new civic space. It will highlight the rich food culture and food tourism in Sligo.
“This is the fulfilment of a dream for me”, enthuses the charismatic Anthony Gray who owns Eala Bhán and Hooked restaurants and is a founding member of Sligo Food Trail, “A Taste of Sligo is going to showcase everything that’s good about food in this county as well as bringing in some top chefs from around the country. This is going to be an annual celebration of food in the northwest”. Anthony’s Taste of Sligo Food Tours has just been named in RTE’s 10 leading food tours.
Professional cookery demonstrations will run from 12 noon on both days with MC Tracie Daly of Ballymaloe fame introducing celebrity chefs Kevin Dundon, Gary O’Hanlon, Shane Smith, Frankie Mallon and Sham Hanifa as well as local stars Alan Fitzmaurice, Becca Sweeney and Dr Prannie Rhatigan as part of the Spanish Armada Ireland weekend. Dishes include everything from tapas and pastries to celebration dishes and Malaysian specialities.
Live musical entertainment will keep the atmosphere buzzing and toes tapping all day long. Organisers expect a dynamic combination of Sligo locals, businesses and visitors joining in the festival and christening the brand new Queen Maeve Square in style, and with excellent taste.
The Taste of Sligo Food Festival is sponsored by Sligo BID and supported by: Sligo Food Trail, Sligo Live Invest Visit, Sligo County Council, Fáilte Ireland, Wild Atlantic Way and Sligo Chamber of Commerce.
Festival tickets can be booked through Eventbrite. The cost is €10 per day or €15 for both days. Under-12s get free admission with an adult.
www.tasteofsligo.ie/taste-of-sligo-food-festival/
Chefs and Food Demonstration Bios
Tracie Daly MC, Food Business Coach
Tracie Daly is a passionate award-winning entrepreneur, qualified executive business coach, and chef, who helps hospitality business owners to unlock their full potential – increasing sales, reducing costs, and improving their operations overall. Tracie is also an experienced and passionate MC for some of Ireland’s top Food festivals and Events- Ballymaloe Festival of Food and Savour Kilkenny where she also operates in the space of talent acquisition.
Gary O’Hanlon
Gary is an award-winning chef, broadcaster and columnist and Executive Head Chef at The K Club. Previously he was the Executive Chef at Chateau du Coudreceau (The Condor) in France, and Head Chef at Viewmount House, Longford. Originally from Ramelton, Co. Donegal Gary is a multi award winner and a genuine powerhouse on the culinary landscape.
Gary is a proud member of Eurotoques Ireland and sat on The Irish Food Council many years.
Kevin Dundon
Kevin Dundon is the Chef/Proprietor of Dunbrody Country House Hotel & Restaurant, located in County Wexford, Ireland’s sunny South East.
Dunbrody Country House was established by Kevin and his wife Catherine since 1997 with a long standing dedicated team. Arguably one of Ireland’s best-loved and most recognised chefs, Kevin can usually be found busy at work in one of Dunbrody House kitchens, the cookery school, online on social media as well as for the last 15 years, working with supermarket retailers SuperValu Ireland.
Reflected in all of Kevin’s cookbooks, his passion for locally-sourced indigenous produce, Kevin considers himself spoilt with the positive bounty of fresh seafood, lamb, beef and fantastic fruit and vegetables literally on his doorstep and around Ireland.
5 days per week, Kevin presents on his Instagram @kevindundon a daily online show “kevin at 2pm”. A short cook-a-long for everyone, where he shares simple recipes with interactive chats.
Kevin is a great supporter of food festivals, local vegetables and fruits growing communities, conferences; whose message is to spread the word of good quality, local food to make delicious simple dinners.
Frankie Mallon, An Port Mór, Westport
Originally from Co. Armagh, Frankie Mallon had a wealth of prestigious experience behind him before setting up his award winning restaurant An Port Mór in Westport. He worked in Paul and Jeanne Rankin’s Roscoff in Belfast where he was part of the team who secured a Michelin star and at the legendary Restaurant Guy Savoy in Paris. He has a clear philosophy: “We are an Irish restaurant and we serve Irish food”, he once told a conference, “but we also offer a Mayo experience: the bedrock of our food is our suppliers, and we just let the ingredients speak”
Alan Fitzmaurice
Executive Chef at The Glasshouse, Sligo since 2012, Alan is well known to Sligo diners. Alan was a member of the Irish Culinary Team that won a silver medal at the Culinary Olympics in Germany. He was one of the 16 finalists picked to compete at the World final of the Global Chef Challenge in Abu Dhabi in May 2022, where he achieved a bronze medal for his efforts.
Along with his competition experience, Alan is the current President of The Panel of Chef of Ireland, an Irish Culinary Youth Team coach and Captain of the Senior Culinary Team who competed at the World Culinary Olympics in Stuttgart 2024, wining double bronze medals.
Alan has an alter ego as a chocolatier with Sylvester Dolan, both for the Glasshouse Hotel and Micro Chocolate Company, Elements of Chocolate, through their passion for chocolate, they have won gold silver and bronze medals in international competitions and here in Ireland with the famous Blas na hEireann awards.
Shamzuri (Sham) Hanifa
Sham is a multi-award winning chef, businessman and broadcaster. Currently he is Chef/Owner of The Cottage Restaurant, owner of My Kitchen by Sham Hanifa, Director and Chef Consultant for Buffalo Boy Steakhouse and Chef/Owner of the ‘Chef Sham Sauces’ range, all based in Carrick on Shannon, County Leitrim.
Originally from Malaysia, Sham moved to Carrick on Shannon in 2000 and opened his first restaurant, The Cottage Restaurant, in 2008. Heavily inspired by his own multi-cultural background and the influence of his grandmother and mother, heworks proudly with local artisan producers to provide modern Irish cooking with Asian background flavours. He believes that “the perfectly balanced flavour between the two culinary cultures requires you to respect the ingredients – local and fresh products are the key”.
He has been resident chef in the Theatre of Food at the Electric Picnic Festival since 2014 and also demo-chef at the Body and Soul Festival. He has been a speaker at the Taste of Dublin and has participated in numerous food festivals and events around the country. He is a proud member and good council of Euro-toque Chefs and is a Food Ambassador for County Leitrim. He holds regular cookery classes, both in person and online.
Sham’s unique story and journey has been documented in the RTÉ series about multiculturalism in Ireland Meet the Neighbours and also for Malaysian television (RTM) in a feature titled Taiping Boy in Leitrim.
Shane Smith
Award winning Pastry Chef, Shane Smith has over 25 years’ experience working in some of the most celebrated pastry kitchens in Ireland & abroad. These years of experience and love of teaching ultimately led to the launch of his own Online Cookery School in 2022. Shane’s mission is to share his experience and knowledge to help educate, mentor and guide the next generation of pastry chefs and home bakers. Along with this, he also manages his own consultancy business, specialising in hands-on training, recipe development, long and short term support, social media planning for food establishments nationwide. He is no stranger to standing in front of the camera lens either as he is a regular on “The Today Show” on RTÉ One, bringing his natural love of all things sweet into the nation’s homes.
Rebecca Sweeney
Becca Sweeney is the Head Chef of Hooked Restaurant, Sligo. She graduated from ATU with a Bachelor of Business degree in Culinary Arts Management and was a BIM Taste the Atlantic Young Chef Ambassador for 2022. Originally from Galway, Becca is passionate about using local and artisanal produce. Rebecca is Youth Spokesperson for Chef Network, advocating for Positive Kitchen environments and encouraging young chefs within the industry.
Rafal Chimiak
Head Chef at Éala Bhan, Rafal Chimiak is a multi award winning chef with a dynamic style and passion for cooking. Rafal has won numerous awards most notably Eala Bhán being judged in the top 5 restaurants in the country and winning Best Restaurant Connaught for two years running at the prestigious RAI awards. Rafal also won best Chef Sligo and has brought Eala Bhán to a different level with his culinary flair.
Dr Prannie Rhatigan
Prannie Rhatigan is a medical doctor with a lifetime experience of harvesting, cooking and gardening organically with sea vegetables. Born and raised in the North West of Ireland where she still lives, she has a lifelong interest in the connections between food and health. she has represented Ireland’s finest food abroad on many occasions and has given workshops and lectures on sea vegetables and cooking. She is part of the Spanish Armada Ireland organising committee and their annual commemorative festival coincides with the Taste of Sligo Food Festival.
