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Connacht Tribune

JP serves up rich mix of history, imagination and recipes

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J P McMahon and his sister Edel at Tartare Café + Wine Bar in Dominick Street Lower. It's one of the places where his new book is for sale.

Lifestyle – Chef and restaurant owner JP McMahon has combined his kitchen creativity and passion for history in his latest project The Irish Cook Book. As he launches it on both sides of the Atlantic, he tells JUDY MURPHY how it came about, his initial reluctance to write it and the debt he owes to the mostly female cookery writers who preceded him.

JP McMahon comes through the door of Galway city’s Tartare Café and Wine Bar, apologising for being late. He’s just driven West in hideous weather, following the launch of this new cook book in Dublin the previous night. En route to Galway, he was doing radio interviews to publicise The Irish Cook Book, a magnificent offering from Phaidon Publishers, who are based in New York and London.

He’s busy – but then the self-taught Michelin-star chef, Irish Times food writer and promoter of Irish food always is.

Over an espresso, JP who owns Spanish tapas bar Cava Bodega and the Michelin-star Aniar Restaurant as well as Tartare, explains how this book, which was three years in the making, came about.

The graduate of English and Art History from UCC had always wanted to produce a book with internationally renowned Phaidon, which publishes beautifully designed and illustrated books on art, architecture, science, travel fashion and cookery.

“I’d always loved their art books,” he says.

JP thought he might follow the example of Swedish chef Magnus Nilsson of the two-star Michelin Fäviken restaurant who has published three books with Phaidon, including one based on recipes from Fäviken, He submitted a proposal to Phaidon of recipes from Aniar.

“I never intended doing a 500-recipe book”, he says with a laugh of the end result.

“Phaidon came back and suggested an Irish food cookbook as part of their ‘bible’ series,” he explains.  These include tomes on Chinese, Spanish, Mexican and Japanese food as well as its Sliver Spoon Italian series, all beautifully produced.

Their latest is JP’s book which gives a new insight into Irish food history and includes an eclectic range of recipes. Soda-bread; smoked eel porridge; venison and barley stew; even the humble crisp sandwich – they’re all here.

However, JP was initially unsure about the Phaidon proposal.

“I didn’t know if Ireland needed another cookbook because there are so many of them.”

He cites cooks and writers as Maura Laverty, Monica Sheridan. Theodora FitzGibbon and Myrtle Allen, all of whom championed Irish food and wrote about it extensively, as being among his heroes. And, initially, he felt their work had fulfilled that brief.

But having been to the forefront of Irish cuisine for the past decade, mostly through Aniar, he also recognised that a lot had happened in that time and that a new book might give a fresh context to our food history. So, The Irish Cook Book was born.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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Connacht Tribune

West has lower cancer survival rates than rest

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Significant state investment is required to address ‘shocking’ inequalities that leave cancer patients in the West at greater risk of succumbing to the disease.

A meeting of Regional Health Forum West heard that survival rates for breast, lung and colorectal cancers than the national average, and with the most deprived quintile of the population, the West’s residents faced poorer outcomes from a cancer diagnosis.

For breast cancer patients, the five-year survival rate was 80% in the West versus 85% nationally; for lung cancer patients it was 16.7% in the west against a 19.5% national survival rate; and in the West’s colorectal cancer patients, there was a 62.6% survival rate where the national average was 63.1%.

These startling statistics were provided in answer to a question from Ballinasloe-based Cllr Evelyn Parsons (Ind) who said it was yet another reminder that cancer treatment infrastructure in the West was in dire need of improvement.

“The situation is pretty stark. In the Western Regional Health Forum area, we have the highest incidence of deprivation and the highest health inequalities because of that – we have the highest incidences of cancer nationally because of that,” said Cllr Parsons, who is also a general practitioner.

In details provided by CEO of Saolta Health Care Group, which operates Galway’s hospitals, it was stated that a number of factors were impacting on patient outcomes.

Get the full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now, or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie. You can also download our Connacht Tribune App from Apple’s App Store or get the Android Version from Google Play.

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Connacht Tribune

Galway minors continue to lay waste to all opponents

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Galway's Aaron Niland is chased by Cillian O'Callaghan of Cork during Saturday's All-Ireland Minor Hurling semi-final at Semple Stadium. Photo: Stephen Marken/Sportsfile.

Galway 3-18

Cork 1-10

NEW setting; new opposition; new challenge. It made no difference to the Galway minor hurlers as they chalked up a remarkable sixth consecutive double digits championship victory at Semple Stadium on Saturday.

The final scoreline in Thurles may have been a little harsh on Cork, but there was no doubting Galway’s overall superiority in setting up only a second-ever All-Ireland showdown against Clare at the same venue on Sunday week.

Having claimed an historic Leinster title the previous weekend, Galway took a while to get going against the Rebels and also endured their first period in a match in which they were heavily outscored, but still the boys in maroon roll on.

Beating a decent Cork outfit by 14 points sums up how formidable Galway are. No team has managed to lay a glove on them so far, and though Clare might ask them questions other challengers haven’t, they are going to have to find significant improvement on their semi-final win over 14-man Kilkenny to pull off a final upset.

Galway just aren’t winning their matches; they are overpowering the teams which have stood in their way. Their level of consistency is admirable for young players starting off on the inter-county journey, while the team’s temperament appears to be bombproof, no matter what is thrown at them.

Having romped through Leinster, Galway should have been a bit rattled by being only level (0-4 each) after 20 minutes and being a little fortunate not to have been behind; or when Cork stormed out of the blocks at the start of the second half by hitting 1-4 to just a solitary point in reply, but there was never any trace of panic in their ranks.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.

 

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Connacht Tribune

Gardaí and IFA issue a joint appeal on summer road safety

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Galway IFA Farm Family and Social Affairs Chair Teresa Roche

GARDAÍ and the IFA have issued a joint appeal to all road users to take extra care as the silage season gets under way across the country.

Silage harvesting started in many parts of Galway last week – and over the coming month, the sight of tractors and trailers on rural roads will be getting far more frequent.

Inspector Conor Madden, who is in charge of Galway Roads Policing, told the Farming Tribune that a bit of extra care and common-sense from all road users would go a long way towards preventing serious collisions on roads this summer.

“One thing I would ask farmers and contractors to consider is to try and get more experienced drivers working for them.

“Tractors have got faster and bigger – and they are also towing heavy loads of silage – so care and experience are a great help in terms of accident prevention,” Inspector Madden told the Farming Tribune.

He said that tractor drivers should always be aware of traffic building up behind them and to pull in and let these vehicles pass, where it was safe to do so.

“By the same token, other road users should always exercise extra care; drive that bit slower; and ‘pull in’ that bit more, when meeting tractors and heavy machinery.

“We all want to see everyone enjoying a safe summer on our roads – that extra bit of care, and consideration for other roads users can make a huge difference,” said Conor Madden.

He also advised motorists and tractor drivers to be acutely aware of pedestrians and cyclists on the roads during the summer season when more people would be out walking and cycling on the roads.

The IFA has also joined in on the road safety appeal with Galway IFA Farm Family and Social Affairs Chair Teresa Roche asking all road users to exercise that extra bit of care and caution.

“We are renewing our annual appeal for motorists to be on the look out for tractors, trailers and other agricultural machinery exiting from fields and farmyards,” she said.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App

Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.

Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.

Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite  HERE.

Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.

 

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