SHARING OPTIONS:
This Korean-style braised beef short rib dish also features delicate quails eggs; which are lightly boiled and peeled before being marinated in the sweet and savoury soy-based sauce. /Janine Kennedy
It seems like a million years ago, but, once, I lived in South Korea. I had never left Canada before making the move. I had never lived in a city. Suddenly, I found myself in a crowded, loud and boisterous neighbourhood in a city just south of the capital, Seoul.
As an English teacher, my school provided me with accommodation and while the school was in a well-to-do area, my apartment was on the edge of town; surrounded by rice fields and trees.
CHEF OF THE YEAR Gráinne O’Keefe
In a year when chefs and restaurant folk were challenged more than ever before, Gráinne O’Keefe proved that a knack for quick thinking is just as important as being able to cook a perfect steak (although she does that too… her signature 80-day whiskey-aged côte de boeuf with chimichurri and smoked bone marrow at Clanbrassil House, Dublin 8, is a thing of beauty, and make sure to order the hash brown chips and pickled onion mayonnaise on the side while you’re at it). As culinary director of BuJo, in Sandymount, she was first out of the traps with a burger kit for home cooks and got nationwide delivery up and running before other restaurants had figured out their packaging. (It’s still right up there amongst the very best of the meal kits.) Smart collaborations throughout the year have kept BuJo relevant and in touch with their customers, and new branches are on the cards for 2021. O’Keefe even found time to put in an appearance on
Úna Ní Bhroin, Beechlawn Organic Farm, Ballinasloe, Co Galway Brussels Sprouts
I met Padraig [Fahy, her husband] at the organic college in Dromcolliher and we started our business in 2002 on an acre of land on his family farm. The farm was not traditionally organic; it had been a dairy farm but Padraig’s father stopped when pasteurisation came in in 1979. Padraig had a bit of horticulture in his blood, as his grandfather had been the head gardener at the Ballinasloe asylum and grew lots of vegetables there.
Padraig’s mother and father helped us at first. We started with a vegetable-box delivery for 20 customers, mainly family and friends. That grew to about 120 customers. Padraig was teaching horticulture full time with Fás and in Castlerea Prison, and gradually he gave up over a few years as the business grew.