While Kylie, Noah Kahan, Calvin Harris and hordes more will entertain the masses at Electric Picnic this coming weekend (16-18 August), there’s an interesting battle set to unfold as part of this year’s Theatre of Food lineup.
Now in its 16th year as part of the EP lineup, the Theatre of Food brings together a host of Ireland’s culinary extraordinaires, cooking and exhibiting across three stages, celebrating all things food, barbecue, and drinks from Friday through Sunday.
Some of the highlights (full lineup above) will see Marcus O’Laoire joined on stage to match recipes with records with Kevin O’Donnell, Aniar’s JP McMahon cooking up some Irish classics alongside Graham Herterich (The Cupcake Bloke), while Aishling Moore joins food waste expert Conor Spacey to look at elevating your fish and chips at home.
On the Kilkenny front, however, I’m more interested in seeing what’s going to unfold when Cork’s reigning ‘Toasted Sandwich Champions’, 51CornMarket, are faced by the team from Arán on Barrack Street in this year’s Toasted Sandwich-off. Clare made sure we never got to give Cork a rattle in Croke Park on the hurling front last month, but if you’ve eaten in Arán, ever, you’ll know that their sandwich is going to take some beating. Maybe a little bit of ‘magic’ will help them over the line? It’s an initiative that went down a treat last year, 51CornMarket taking the inaugural prize, seeing off Daddy’s of Dublin in the process, but we all know that award belongs on Noreside.
You can also catch Graiguenamanagh’s John Whelan (The Devil’s Menu) in action for a barbeque masterclass at the Garden Stage, with the Wexford-based Smokin’ Soul duo looking after all things barbeque bites for the weekend.
Keep an eye on @theatreoffood on Instagram over the weekend or swing by Theatre of Food’s main stage around 3pm on Saturday to see who comes out on top.
