Award-winning food writer Kate Ryan of Flavour.ie on her life in food

Kate Ryan is an award-winning food writer and founder of Flavour.ie, a platform dedicated to promoting Irish food and drink and the home of her blog, The Flavour Files, where Kate writes about great local produce, seasonality, wild and foraged food, and craft drinks of all kinds, with recipes that illustrate how artisan foods are as at home in our kitchens as they are on a restaurant menu.

Originally from Bristol, Kate moved to Cork in 2005 and quickly recognised the food scene in Ireland was becoming transformative. With a growing number of food and drink producers and an increasing abundance of exceptional restaurants to celebrate, Ireland became this food writer’s forever home.

A member of the Irish Food Writers Guild since 2019, Kate has written extensively for a number of esteemed publications, and was just last month named Blas na hÉireann’s Producers’ Champion for 2023 for her dedication to championing the best of everything Irish and independent.

Here, she shared with us the story of her affinity with food, from earliest memories to favourite flavours and mealtime favourites…

What are your earliest memories of food?

I was fortunate to grow up in a house with a large garden with half given over to growing different fruits and vegetables. My mum would send me out with a container to pick whatever was needed for dinner that night; my grandad lived with us, and it was his job to dig out the spuds for dinner. I have the clearest memory of collecting blackcurrants, probably mum was making a crumble.

I remember the scent of the leaves of the blackcurrant bushes, and their scratchy, velvety texture. The bushes were thick with leaves and the dark purple berries were nestled deep within. I’d reach through and find the drapes of berries, touching them to decide if they were perfectly ripe and mastering the art of threading them off their stems carefully without bursting them. It’s the first memory I have where I was completely aware of how food requires all our senses to be engagement to properly appreciate and understand it.

How would you describe your relationship with food?

A joyful one! I love everything about food: watching it grow from a seed to harvest, discovering a new product, trying a new cuisine, the moments of pure indulgence and the moments where I’m mindfully eating to benefit my health. If I truly connect with something that tastes utterly delicious, I involuntarily giggle. It’s pure joy to me.

What was the first meal you learned to cook?

My mum used to make a dish she called Macaroni Cheese, but I was well into my 20’s before I realised that it wasn’t what everyone else called Mac n Cheese! She’d make it once a week with minced beef and a tin of ratatouille, farfalle pasta, laced with thick bechamel and cheddar cheese, and baked until burnished and crispy on top! I still love it and make it the same was as mum always did, but now I call it “My Mum’s Not-Very-Macaroni-Cheese Macaroni Cheese!”

How did food become a part of your career/business/personal brand?

Food has always been an important part of my life, but I never really understood how much until I moved to Ireland in 2005. I’ve always understood that food is the quickest way to understand a culture, so I made a point of learning as much as I could about Irish food.

When I moved to west Cork a year or so later, I realised I was in the beating heart of the Irish artisan food movement and surrounded by all kinds of amazing people growing, making and creating delicious things to eat and drink. I wanted to tell everyone back home what an amazingly delicious place I had found myself in, and started my blog, Flavour.ie, as a place to write about my food adventures. From there, I started writing for papers and magazines, offering food tours and hosting supper clubs.

Since Covid, I’m entirely focused on food writing, and I tell people I have the best job in the world, because all day long I get to taste, cook, talk, write and think about food!

What’s your go-to breakfast?

Right now, I’m all about Velvet Cloud Sheep’s Yogurt! It’s a family farm business that diversified into premium dairy products, and the yogurt is their flagship product. It’s a rich, thick, creamy, high-protein yogurt with nothing in it except sheep’s milk and live cultures. I’m looking to up my protein intake at breakfast right now, so I whip Nutshed Peanut Butter into Velvet Cloud Sheep’s Yogurt and top with seasonal berries. It’s delicious and keeps me full right up to lunchtime.

If you’re impressing friends and family at a dinner party, what are you serving up?

Apologies in advance to my veggie and vegan friends, but I love the ceremony of serving up a meaty centrepiece to guests. A beautifully roasted chicken with tonnes of garlic, lemon and tarragon, or a shoulder of lamb marinaded in yogurt and ras al hanout and slow cooked for 6 hours until the meat falls of the bone; slow braised beef or pig cheeks, or melt-in-your-mouth pork belly… To me, to impress is to do the simple things well, to comfort my guests with delicious things so they go home happy and with full bellies.

Who is your culinary inspiration?

Can I have three?! I left home when I was 19 and that was when I really started to take cooking seriously. Back then, Jamie Oliver and Nigella Lawson were massive TV stars, and everyone wanted to cook and eat like them – me included. Since settling in Ireland, Darina Allen is a constant guiding star. I remember the first time I came across her book “Forgotten Skills of Skills” and fell in love with foraging and the possibilities of what can be made in your own kitchen. Now, I can call Darina a close colleague and mentor; What a woman!

What would your last meal on earth be?

I think it would have to be something I could lash loads of cream on. I’m from the West Country, so cream and custard run through my veins, I’m sure! Maybe a perfectly baked scone – no fruit, raspberry jam, and a too-thick layer of clotted cream on top. Yes, the cream should always be on top!

What’s your go-to comfort food?

Custard – in all its many glorious forms! Custard tarts with fresh nutmeg, custard doughnuts, crème pat filled mille-feuille, pastéis de nata, crème Anglaise, Devon custard…I’m here for it all.

What’s the go-to quick meal you cook when you’re tired and hungry?

Tinned fish have saved me more times than I care to admit. I’m particularly fond of sardines in tomato sauce – on toast or in a salad of crispy leaves. Shine’s of Killybegs are my favourite.

What is one food or flavour you cannot stand?

I struggle with Gooseberries, especially green ones; and anything slimy.

Hangover cure?

Few things cure better than a rotisserie chicken from my local Supervalu with coleslaw, potato salad and a massive packet of Keogh’s crisps.

Sweet or savoury?

Savoury.

Fine dining or pub grub?

Both!

Favourite restaurant in Ireland?

This is the culinary equivalent of asking a parent to pick their favourite child! This is so hard, but, OK, for the pure bravery of being able to put out an entire new menu everyday sometimes with only a few hours’ notice; of pioneering the whole-catch and fin-to-gill approach in Ireland; for working hard to ensure fairness and equity in her restaurant; for striving for zero waste with innovative cookery; for always learning and always smiling, it has to be Aishling Moore’s Goldie Fish and Ale in Cork. Her food is smart, fun, serious, artful and technically faultless. Moore is a shining star in Ireland’s culinary scene and deserves every ounce of recognition she gets.

Best coffee in Ireland?

In my adopted hometown of Clonakilty is the original Stone Valley Roasters coffee shop. Every coffee I’ve ever had from there has been magnificent. There’s a reason the queue goes out the door and down the street.

Go-to beverage accompaniment?

The Baci di Dama (Lady’s Kisses) from West Cork Biscuit Co are dangerously moreish.

What are your thoughts on the Irish foodie scene?

When it comes to food production, Ireland is world class. We have such a rich larder of foods at our fingertips, it’s an embarrassment of riches. But we have issues: we need more vegetable growers, and we need government policy to support the ones remaining and encourage more to come into the sector. Ireland should never have to rely on imported vegetables because all our own growers have finally given up and packed it in. The issue is fast becoming a critical one, and there needs to be decisive action to keep Irish horticulture alive.

What’s your favourite thing about cooking?

It’s the one time of the day when no-one can get hold of me. My hands are busy chopping,
stirring, rolling, moulding; the phone is thrown into a corner, the notifications are ignored, if someone calls – leave a message! It’s that time in the day when I can be completely present in what I am doing and employing all my senses to cook a meal. It’s just me, my ingredients and my kitchen.

What does food — sitting down to a meal with friends, mindfully preparing a meal, nourishment, etc — mean to you?

Food means everything to me. It’s how I show love, it’s how I provide nourishment, it’s how I like to gather with people. But it’s also how I mark the year, with seasons and the different foods that come available. It’s how I view the whole world. John McKenna often says, “food is an aleph”, meaning that through one point of singularity you can see everything. That’s what food is to me: it’s everything we are.

Food for thought — Is there room for improvement within the Irish food/restaurant/hospitality scene?

There are many things that need to improve in this industry, but an issue that I am fanatical about is eliminating food waste. Things are improving, but too much food waste still happens, and that makes no sense. It’s a cost to business, the consumer and the environment. There are plenty of resources supporting business to measure, cost and identify how much food waste is happening and where, and then provide training, guidance and support for eradicating it. People like Conor Spacey of Food Space Ireland and Michael Kelly at GIY are passionate about this issue, and I commend them for it. It’s not a fad anymore; food waste is a real contributor to the climate crisis, and it simply cannot be ignored.

Chef’s kiss — Tell us about one standout foodie experience you’ve had recently.

The Glass Curtain in Cork, another standout restaurant in the city, earlier this year served up Crab Bone Marrow – roasted beef bone marrow topped with fresh crab and a tarragon and saffron bechamel. My husband and I were fighting over it, definite chef’s kiss moment!

Compliments to the chef — Now’s your chance to sing the praises of a talented chef, beloved restaurant or particularly talented foodie family member.

I’m more than happy to give my compliments to someone who is a talented chef for sure, but also a good friend and favourite sounding board! Caitlin Ruth’s food is so unimaginably tasty, so full of love and monumental effort, and yet she is so unassuming about how talented she is! She was head chef of Deasy’s Seafood Restaurant for more than a decade, and everyone mourned when she decided it was time to move on and the restaurant closed soon after. But now, she pops up in locations all over the county and further afield with her food truck, and cooking at pop ups and supper clubs. I love sitting with her, talking about food, and watching her brain work up a genius menu from thin air. Her cocktails are amazing, and I wouldn’t be without her counsel. She’s the best!

Secret ingredient — What, in your estimation, makes the perfect dining experience?

Service. I recently dined in a very high-end fine dining restaurant where the food was pretty darn good, but the service was even better. I’m sure that the balance was entirely right there – good service should enhance the dining experience, not be the star of it, but it was lovely to experience really great service that effortlessly struck the perfect balance between professionalism and friendliness. No mean feat. I’m glad to see the conversation around valuing service getting serious now, to see it as a profession and career worthwhile pursuing. Ireland needs that.

Imagery via Joleen Cronin