It's time to expand our horizons with tales and news from the land of the ‘wild Atlantic way, the ancient east, and the causeway coast and glens’. We can expect a rich feast of conversation informed by:

a new gastrocritical approach through a culinary lens on Irish literature

the rise of the hamely kitchen at home and abroad.

and a sneak preview of the magnus opus Irish Food History: A Companion,

Our lead conversationalists are :

Dr Anke Klitzing also lectures at the Technological University Dublin in food culture, literature, and media. Her research focuses on developing the gastrocritical paradigm – the theory and methodology of understanding the nexus of food and writing. Besides academic publications, she has written on food, literature and society for Irish, German and Italian publications. She serves on the organising committee of the Dublin Gastronomy Symposium, as editor of the Journal of Franco-Irish Studies, production editor of the European Journal of Food, Drink, and Society, and as tech co-host the Oxford Food Symposium “WikiClub” virtual events.

Chef Paula McIntyre MBE trained in culinary arts at the prestigious Johnson and Wales University in Rhode Island, USA, before opening  the award winning restaurant ‘The Undrie’ in Manchester in 1993. Returning to her Northern Irish home in 1998, Paula worked as head chef in 'Ghan House' in Carlingford,  'Fontana' in Holywood, and also lectured in the ‘Professional Cookery’ programme in Northern Regional College. Her books include ‘Taste Causeway, Recipes and Stories’, ‘A Kitchen Year’ and ‘ Down to Earth’. In 2015 she won the Farming Life/Danske Bank Farming Champion Award and in 2017  The Restaurant Association of Ireland awarded her Food Hero for Ulster. As well as  Director of Slow Food NI,  ambassador for the Taste Causeway food network, and Deputy Lieutenant to County Londonderry, Paula finds the time to present BBC NI’s Hamely Kitchen, is a favourite panelist on Jay Rayner’s Kitchen Cabinet, and a regular contributor to Radio 4’s Food Programme.

Dr Elaine Mahon,  lecturer at the School of Culinary Art and Food Technology at Technological University Dublin. She is Assistant Director of the National Centre for Franco-Irish Studies and Editor of the Journal of Franco-Irish Studies. She is a member of the organising committee of the Dublin Gastronomy Symposium and a trustee of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery where she coordinates the Young Chefs programme. A bilingual English/French speaker, Elaine was awarded a PhD for her analysis of the role of the diplomatic meal in international relations. Her research interests focus on culinary diplomacy, food history, French gastronomy, and culinary education. She is currently preparing a monograph for Peter Lang, Oxford, entitled ‘“The Minister Requests The Pleasure”: Diplomatic Dining and State Entertainment by Irish Ministers for External Affairs, 1922–1963’, for publication in 2024.

Dr Máirtín Mac Con Iomaire,  senior lecturer in the School of Culinary Arts and Food Technology, Technological University Dublin. He is the co-founder and chair of the biennial Dublin Gastronomy Symposium (2012-present) and a former two-term trustee of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery (2015-2021). He is chair of the Masters in Gastronomy and Food Studies in TU Dublin, the first such programme in Ireland. Máirtín is co-editor with Eamon Maher of ‘Tickling the Palate’: Gastronomy in Irish Literature and Culture (Peter Lang: 2014) and New Beginnings: Perspectives from France and Ireland (Peter Lang, 2023), and with Rhona Richman Kenneally on ‘The Food Issue’ of The Canadian Journal of Irish Studies (2018). He has published widely in peer-reviewed journals, and in 2018, he presented an eight-part television series for TG4 called Blasta celebrating Ireland’s food heritage. In 2021, he guest edited a special issue of Folk Life: Journal of Ethnological Studies 59(2) on Irish Food Ways. He is co-editor of the new European Journal of Food Drink and Society since 2021. He was awarded an IRC Research Ally Prize in both 2021 and 2022 for mentoring doctoral candidates. In 2022, his doctoral student Caitríona Nic Philibín was awarded an IRC GOI Postgraduate Research Scholarship. In 2023, Máirtín was awarded a TU Dublin Researcher Award. In 2023, Máirtín was nominated for two awards at the inaugural TU Dublin Excellence in Research and Innovation Awards (Excellence in Research Supervision; Established Research Career). Along with Dorothy Cashman, he has co-edited Irish Food History: A Companion (EUT+ Academic Press, 2023; Royal Irish Academy, 2024).

Introduced by David Matchett