Archive for April, 2010

Radio play for paper; a short tragedy in one piece

Friday, April 30th, 2010

start  silence(thirty seconds); sound of distant tremble and roll, soft drum, roll, sound of momentum gathering, faster roll, loud drum, out of control.
Sound of enormous onion rolling and thundering down a steep hill, all the time sounding faster, steeper and more ferocious, forty five seconds gathering to orchestra crescendo then gasps nay screams cars beep and screech, crash, bang etcetera\- sound of onion hitting wall at speed, exploding skin, bursting acidy juice, mush and slime, flying layers stick to cars and envelope passers by.
on impact of onion there are sounds of muffled yells from within, melee of post collision subsides followed by sound of man emerging from the surviving onion layers that saved him, sounds of him shaking off like a dog, juice running, gasps ensue; sound of man getting unsteadily to his feet, sounds of dizziness , confusion and pain; sound of him struggling to maintain his balance and him balling his eyes out, interrupted by the sound of a very fast oncoming large vegetable, so fast in fact that it sounds too fast  to identify, screech, thud, noises of too late, sad music (ten seconds), silence becomes sound of onlookers mournfully munching shards of raw onion, sounding like they are safe in the knowledge that it is good for their blood, fades to conceited silence,   end

Paul Lewis speaks out on one of the more crude elements of cooking at The Silk Purse…

Thursday, April 29th, 2010

A star is born…

Friday, April 23rd, 2010

oh what to do with all those knife-chopped vegetables…

Tuesday, April 13th, 2010

Día del St Patri in Barcelona

Thursday, April 1st, 2010

Paul and Frank of the Silk Purse

Following upon the enjoyable evening last October when Paco Guzman came to the Silk Purse restaurant and cooked some of his signature Catalan dishes with Irish ingredients, Paul and Frank completed the food exchange by going to Barcelona to serve up a Patrick’s day feast in Paco’s restaurant Santa…

Paco, Josep Abril and Paul

Being fitted

Begining their trip with a visit to the atelier of Josep Abril, Paul and Frank arranged to take some of the impeccible catalan style home with them. Abril also organised some uniforms for the staff of Santa to wear during the event, including some green bandanas for the Irish and Spanish Chefs alike…

Frank at Bodega in Barcelona

Bodega in Barcelona

Riojas

Paco then organised for Paul, Frank and the staff of his restaurants Santa and Santa Maria to descend upon a traditional Bodega to sample some of the more regional wines Spain has to offer such as Galician and Catalan riojas…

Tapas bar

The Jackets

A luncheon of olives, squid, artichoke hearts and numerious other dishes was had in an unassuming tapas bar that was filled with deep rolling laughter, clouds of smoke and a Frenchman filled with the affirmation of Catalan living…

Preparations

Just as well the Mucsavages made themselves scarce

Barcelona by night

menoo

All that remained was for the Chefs-on-Tour to serve up a feast in Santa restaurant. The menu for the evening was:

Salmón salvaje irlandés ahumado con mantequilla y especies.
Bollo de algas y berros irlandés.
Mejillones con puerros, panceta y crema.
Cabeza de cerdo y el pudín negro con salvia y cebolla.
Cordero guisado tradicional con la cebada, zanahorias, patatas y Beamish!
Queso fresco de cabra Irsish con manzana y galletas de avena.
Postre especial, Bram Stoker (escritor irlandés de Drácula), versión de su Drácula, con crema a base de algas irlandesas

Feast your eyes upon this video of the proceedings…