Ireland 2023

Explore.Experience.Discover: The Food Culture of Ireland

A 10-day immersion to explore, experience and discover the beauty of the country and the passion of the people that creates the unique food culture of southwest Ireland. Based in Cork, the food and culinary capital of Ireland, the program begins on the historic University College Cork (UCC) campus in engaging discussions with UCC faculty Colin Sage, food geographer and author of Environment and Food and Regina Sexton, food and culinary historian and author of A Little History of Irish Food, setting the stage for the tours, tastings and experiences ahead. Colin and Regina will be our guides as we explore Cork’s renowned English Market and Butter Museum, travel to the nearby village of Midleton for the Saturday market and a tour of the Jameson whiskey distillery and spend a day visiting with dairy farmers. End your time with us in Ireland for an afternoon at the internationally acclaimed Ballymaloe Cookery School where you will work with the culinary staff to prepare a garden to table dinner. The program provides a perfect mix of scheduled activities and meals and the opportunity to discover and visit local sites and restaurants on your own.

Faculty | Registration

PROGRAM

Tuesday, May 16 | Arrive and check into accommodations
Wednesday, May 17 | UNIVERSITY COLLEGE CORK and WELCOME DINNER: GREENES RESTAURANT
Thursday, May 18 | GLOBAL FOOD PRODUCTION AND CHALLENGES
Friday, May 19 | APPLICATION IN ACTION: SUSTAINABILITY AND FARMING
Saturday, May 20 | LOCAL MARKETS, LOCAL FOOD
Sunday, May 21 | FREE DAY
Monday, May 22 | FOOD HISTORY: CONNECTING TRADITIONS
Tuesday, May 23 | HISTORY OF FOOD IN IRELAND
Wednesday, May 24 | MAKING AND UNMAKING MEAT
Thursday, May 25 | HUNTING LODGE, KITCHEN GARDENS & COOKERY SCHOOL
Friday, May 26 | DEPARTURE

Wednesday, May 17 | UNIVERSITY COLLEGE CORK and WELCOME DINNER: GREENES RESTAURANT

Head chef Bryan McCarthy, Restaurant Association of Ireland Best Chef award. Organic, locally sourced food, “cooked with flair and imagination.”

Colin Sage, PhD and Regina Sexton, MS

AM/PM Welcome, campus tour and program overview

Free evening. Enjoy Cork

Thursday, May 18 | GLOBAL FOOD PRODUCTION AND CHALLENGES

Colin Sage, PhD

AM CHALLENGES FOR THE GLOBAL FOOD SYSTEM

What we eat has a significant impact on the global environment. The challenges today are on creating a sustainable food system achieved through both technology-based changes to agricultural practices and consumer-food-choice changes that represent sustainable eating.

PM COMPETING VISIONS FOR FEEDING THE WORLD

An engaging discussion about food and nutritional security concerns around the world that put agriculture at a crossroads. How we will feed the world is an arena with competing visions of technological solutions and sustainable development principles.

Free evening. Enjoy Cork

Friday, May 19 | APPLICATION IN ACTION: SUSTAINABILITY AND FARMING

Colin Sage, PhD

AM GLENILEN FARM

Dedicated to clean simple food bringing authentic farmhouse taste with honesty and transparency. Focus on sustainability and responsibility. The farm produces yogurt and other dairy products.

Talking with Alan Kingston at Glenilen Farms

Lunch at Glenilen Farm

PM MACROOM BUFFALO MOZZARELLA FARM

Beginning with 31 Buffaloes from Italy, this farm has the first milking herd of Buffalo in Ireland. The farm now hosts a herd of over 200 animals on a 150 acre farm based in Cill na Martra near Macroom in County Cork.

Free evening. Enjoy Cork

Saturday, May 20 | LOCAL MARKETS, LOCAL FOOD

Colin Sage, PhD and Regina Sexton, MS

Our visits today provide a window into local food cultures beginning at the Midleton Saturday Market to observe and experience the direct connections with food growers and producers. A tour and tasting at the Midleton Jameson Distillery continues the focus on local production. Our lunch will be at Sage Restaurant, an award-winning restaurant that specializes in a 12-mile food- sourcing policy. Chef Kevin Aherne will join us after lunch to answer questions about the joys and challenges associated with sourcing local ingredients. We finish with a visit to meet Frank Hederman at Belvelly Smokehouse, one of the few traditional smokehouses remaining in the world where, for more than 25 years, Frank has smoked fish using a technique where fish is smoked hung over beachwood chips.

Irish potatoes for sale at Midelton Saturday market

Free evening. Enjoy Cork

Sunday, May 21 | FREE DAY

Relax on your own or take a day trip on a tour bus to beautiful West Ireland sites like the Ring of Kerry, Dingle Bay, Cliffs of Moher, Blarney Castle.

Monday, May 22 | FOOD HISTORY: CONNECTING TRADITIONS

Regina Sexton, MS

AM THE ENGLISH MARKET IN CORK

Tour of the English Market with food historian, Regina Sexton.

Tour and tasting through Ireland’s most renowned covered market. Opened in 1788, it is one of the oldest local markets in the world and remains a bastion of Cork’s food traditions.

Irish potatoes at The English Market in Cork

Pat O’Connell at the English Market in Cork

Lunch: The Farmgate Café

“Centuries old traditional, seasonal, regional, even ‘forgotten’ foods are at the core of the Farmgate ethos, and also form a visible link between the menu and the wonderful array of produce downstairs”.

PM CORK BUTTER MUSEUM

Guided visit and demonstration at the museum celebrating one of Ireland’s great success storied – butter. Discover its heritage, growth in the 19th century and growth in international trade.

Free evening. Enjoy Cork

Tuesday, May 23 | HISTORY OF FOOD IN IRELAND

Regina Sexton, MS

AM THE EVOLUTION OF FOOD, CULINARY AND DIETARY PATTERNS IN IRELAND

Ireland has a rich agriculture and related food history. Today, the growth of artisan food producers, well-known chefs and regional food markets are sustaining Cork’s culinary culture and its continued claim to be the food capital of Ireland.

PM THE GREAT IRISH FAMINE

The second half of the 18th century was the high point for the potato in Ireland. On the eve of the Great Famine, however, only one variety, the Lumper was almost the universal food of the poor. Their dangerous reliance not simply on one food, but on one variety of potato which was highly susceptible to potato blight made inevitable the dire consequences of this fungal disease in 1845.

Join us on a train to Cobh, the emigration port for hundreds of thousands of Irish emigrants and the last port of call for the Titanic. Visit the Heritage Center (www.cobhheritage.com).

Dinner on your own in Cobh.

Wednesday, May 24 | MAKING AND UNMAKING MEAT

Colin Sage, PhD

Colin Sage will start our day with a discussion about the climate impact of producing animal protein and plant protein. Then we are off to see how a vegetable grower and restauranteur are working together to provide a de-meatification culinary experience Travel by bus to the farm of Ultan Walsh, an organic vegetable grower who will provide a tour of his high tunnels during which he and Denis Cotter, award-winning author and proprietor of Café Paradiso, Cork, award-winning vegetarian restaurant, will explain their collaboration between the vegetable grower and restaurant owner. Lunch at Ultan Walsh Farm prepared with vegetables from the gardens will include a conversation with Denis Cotter.

Dinner at Café Paradiso

An iconic institution in the Cork dining scene and the wider Irish food culture featuring the innovative and groundbreaking vegetable cuisine of Denis Cotter.

Thursday, May 25 | HUNTING LODGE, KITCHEN GARDENS & COOKERY SCHOOL

AM FOTA HOUSE

A guided tour of Fota House, its arboretum and Frameyard Kitchen Gardens. Fota House, originally a modest two-story hunting lodge belonging to the Smith-Barry family, was expanded in the 1820s into an elegant Regency style country house with over 70 rooms, ranging in size from the more modest servant rooms to the large and beautifully proportioned principal rooms. The development of Fota’s internationally recognized arboretum in the 1840s coincided with the great plant hunting expeditions around the world bringing back wonderful specimens from places such as the Orient, South America and the Pacific coast of northwest America. “Fota” is derived from the Irish “Fód te” meaning warm soil – perfect for the growing and cultivation of rare trees and exotic plants.

Lunch on your own: The Cafe at Fota House Dine al fresco and enjoy the views over Fota’s parklands. A variety of food prepared on a daily basis often using organic produce from Fota’s kitchen garden.

PM BALLYMALOE COOKERY SCHOOL

Tour of the organic farm and gardens. Cooking demonstration followed by hands on culinary experience and dinner.

Celebrating at Ballymaloe with Rachel Allen

Friday, May 26 | DEPARTURE

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University College Cork Faculty

Dr Sage retired in 2019 from his position as Senior Lecturer in the Department of Geography, School of the Human Environment at University College Cork. His research interests are food systems, environmental policy and civic initiatives for social change. He is the author of Environment and Food (Routledge, 2012) and the co-editor of Food Transgressions: Making sense of contemporary food politics (Ashgate, 2014). Dr Sage has published more than 50 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters and delivered more than 70 keynote lectures and conference papers. He developed and served as chair of the Cork Food Policy Council.

Regina Sexton is a Lecturer on food history at University College Cork. She is a food historian, food writer, broadcaster and cook. Her research interests include food and identity, food and tradition and food in the Irish country house. For over 25 years, she has conducted research and published widely at academic and popular levels in the area of Irish food and culinary history. Regina holds a certificate in Food and Wine from the Ballymaloe Cookery School. She has worked as a food history consultant with Bord Bia, Teagasc, Fáilte Ireland, RTÉ and the Irish Heritage Trust and as an historical food stylist for a number of television productions. Regina is also a member of the judging panel for Food and Wine’s annual food and wine awards.

You could call it the luck of the Irish (Ann has family roots in Ireland) that an introduction by a University College Cork (UCC) professor, presenting at a conference with Ann in Florence, Italy brought Ann to Cork, Ireland to connect with UCC faculty colleagues, Colin Sage and Regina Sexton, and to create a total immersion into the food culture of Ireland today. As dietitian nutritionists, Le Greta and Ann value the expertise that Colin and Regina bring to the foodcultureology Ireland program from their extensive research on the continuing evolution of food production and consumption and its impact on our environment as well as their personal relationships with local food producers. Back to top

Registration

PROGRAM FEE $3150 Program fee is land price only. Fee does not include airfare to/from Cork, Ireland. Fee includes:

Transportation from Cork Airport on arrival and to/from accommodation for field visits.
Presentations by University College Cork faculty experts, local artisans, producers, chefs
Cooking class
10 nights’ accommodations in a private ensuite room at University College Cork apartments
Meals: 4 lunches, 3 dinners.

ACCOMMODATIONS

University College Cork apartments. Enjoy a private bedroom and bathroom in a 3-bedroom apartment with shared living room and kitchen with other program participants.

MEALS

The program lists all meals included in the program fee.
If lunch or dinner is not listed on the program, this indicates free time on your own.
Please indicate special dietary needs when you register.

PARTICIPANTS

The program is designed for individuals seeking food, culinary and cultural experiences.
Registered Dietitians may also receive 32 continuing education credits for this program.

REGISTRATION

Prior to registration, please read the General Terms and Conditions, Responsibility & Disclaimer. Registration means you have read and understand these terms and conditions. Please fill out registration form

PAYMENT OPTIONS

Pay $500 by February 1 to save a space and make two payments of $1325 each by March 1 and April 1, 2023.
Or pay in full by March 1, 2023 and take $100 off.
Send check payable to foodcultureology LLC and send with registration form and signed General terms and Conditions, Responsibility & Disclaimer to: foodcultureology, 5800 E. 22^nd Avenue, Denver, CO 80207.

CANCELLATION POLICY

Program fees will be refunded on or before March 11, 2023, in full minus a $300 administration fee. There will be NO REFUNDS for cancellations after March 11. There are no exceptions to this policy. We understand that emergencies of all nature do arise, however there are no exceptions to our cancellation policy. We strongly urge you to purchase trip insurance to cover you for this possibility.