Clockwise from top left: An excursion at Food on the Edge 2022; a symposium speaker; the welcome dinner; JP McMahon, Founder & Symposium Director; Airfield Estate, the venue for Food on the Edge 2023.

Super Early Bird Tickets On Sale From 31st December For Food On The Edge 2023 The award-winning Food On The Edge, now in its eighth year, will take place for the third time at Airfield Estate, Dundrum, Co Dublin, on Monday 16th and Tuesday 17th October 2023. The Two-Day Super Early Bird Ticket goes on sale online at www.foodontheedge.ie on 31st December at a reduced rate of €225 and includes two-day access to all speaker talks, lunches, evening entertainment and a ticket to the wrap party. This special rate is available for a limited number of tickets and is only available until 31st January, if not sold out before then. Post Super Early Bird rate, the ticket price increases to €275.

The theme of 2023’s event will be Storytelling with founder and symposium director JP McMahon expanding on the theme, saying, “Storytelling is a social and cultural act whereby a people or a nation talk to themselves about themselves. Stories preserve traditions and teach us about past generations. Food must have a story, though this doesn’t mean that it has to replace the taste. The important components in the story of the food are the people and the product. I want to hear the story that connects the food to the land and the people who produced it. Hand-picked crab meat from the Aran Islands. Simple and pure. It tells a story of itself: of the waves, of the skies, of the history of that island. Vast tracts of time. You lift a spoon to your mouth. A story in a mouthful. There are many Irish food stories waiting to be uncovered, from prehistoric times to those hidden in the Irish language itself. We look forward to the many stories that will be shared at Food on the Edge 2023 from the multitude of diverse cultures and perspectives of our speakers.”

The 2023 event will build on the success of the 2022 symposium which centred around the themes of Disruption and Regeneration and drew speakers from around the world and at home, creating conversation, debate and inspiring action. The closing date for 2-day Super Early Bird tickets is 31st January 2023 (or until sold out). Tickets for Food On The Edge 2023 can be purchased via www.foodontheedge.ie. More details of 2023’s symposium will be announced in the coming months.

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Pictured: Gráinne Kelleher, CEO at Airfield Estate and FOTE Founder JP McMahon at the FOTE2021 launch event.

Food On The Edge is back this year in the form of a blended symposium with a mix of in-person speakers with other speakers joining virtually. The venue for this year’s event is Airfield Estate, Dundrum in Dublin while the dates are 18th and 19th October. Confirmed speakers include, Garima Aurora, the first Indian woman to win a Michelin star, Andre Chaing, Alice Zaslavsky and returning to Food on the Edge this year, Mark Best star of Netflix, ‘Chef’s Table’. Virtual tickets will go on sale in July priced at €95, while in-person tickets will go on sale later in the year from €350 for two days and from €195 for one day.

“The event will be streamed live so people can watch it from anywhere in the world, and so we expect to grow our audience. The theme of this year’s symposium is ‘Social Gastronomy’, says Founder JP McMahon, “The theme is very important this year as the industry has evolved throughout the pandemic and I hope we’ll see lasting change. Social Gastronomy is a term that encapsulates caring for food in a more holistic and total manner. It is the creation of a network of like-minded chefs and hospitality workers, to forge communities that use food to transform their everyday environment. It cultivates local connections and builds long term partnerships around the world, using the power of food as a vehicle for change and development at grassroots level. Social Gastronomy aims to create a more equitable food culture, and a more inclusive society using food as an essential tool to build a better ecology and safer environment for all of humanity to thrive. I believe that Social Gastronomy uses food as a vehicle for change and development, and that is at the core of Food On The Edge and everyone that speaks and takes part”.

For the first time, Food On The Edge will move from Galway and will take place in Airfield Estate in Dundrum, Dublin. Grainne Kelleher, CEO at Airfield Estate said “Airfield Estate, a 38 acre working farm in

Dublin is delighted to be the home of FOTE 2021. The estate has a long history of sustainable and social gastronomy dating back to the early 1900s when it was one of the first farms to supply pasteurised milk to disadvantaged families with the aim of preventing tuberculosis in Dublin city centre. Today it is a centre for food education and research with a mission to inspire and enable consumers to make food choices that benefit people, planet and pocket.”

A key partner of Food On The Edge 2021 is Gather & Gather who have continued their support this year for the event. “We are once again delighted to be partnering with FOTE. This year I feel it’s even more special given the devastating impact the pandemic has had on the hospitality industry globally. The conversations in the past have helped us shape our food philosophy and this year as we reconnect with food post-pandemic, we look forward to new conversations. The theme of social gastronomy is of huge interest to us given our role as both food educators and cooks and how we positively impact society with food. We are super excited that for the first time outside of Galway FOTE will be in Airfield Estate in Dublin.” said Pauline Cox, Managing Director of Gather & Gather Ireland.

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Some of the contributors of ‘Lessons from Lockdown: Cooking after Covid’ Nathan Outlaw, Massimo Botturo, Elena Arzak and FOTE Founder Jp McMahon

In August of 2020, when many in the restaurant business around the world found themselves enduring the brutal consequences of a global pandemic, many without income, without their staff and without their business, Food On The Edge founder JP McMahon reached out to speakers and other contributors to the Food On The Edge symposium, his request was simple – to write a letter addressed to the industry.

“The basis of the request was that their contributions would serve to provide a global record of a particularly challenging time while allowing hope to shine on the future and the next generation of young cooks, chefs, farmers and food activists. What we got was a series of deeply personal and moving accounts of their COVID-19 experience with many recounting losses and some reminiscing on valuable gains and insights”, said JP McMahon.

“The book portrays the diverse voices from around the world that make up the industry. From the chefs to producers to service providers. The book has been downloaded thousands of times and the response has been nothing short of inspirational. The resilience of our industry is testament to the support we give each other and the learnings we take from each other.” 

The experiences throughout the book have similar themes, often the joy that came with spending more time with family and loved ones, evaluating what life was like before COVID-19 and changes that would be made going forward. Matt Orlando, of Amass Restaurant in Copenhagen,  wrote “I have realised that I have let my restaurant define who I am over the last seven years. I have also realised that this cannot be the way forward.”

Many writers that contribute to the book recognize this spirit of resiliency of the industry, Elena Arzak, of Restaurant Arzak in San Sebastian, Spain wrote “The hospitality industry is in an especially hard place. But if there’s one thing chefs are good at it’s making the best out of any situation. We are givers and can make wonderful things out of the ingredients that we have on hand. We are good at logistics and planning and we are generous because our reason for being is to feed and take care of people. Now is the time to be especially generous.” 

While for others they recounted the despair of losing their teams and the dream of the future they were building, Alexandre Silva, owner of Loco in Lisbon, Portugal wrote,  “I felt the accountability of having 70 people at risk of losing their livelihood and the risk of leaving my daughters without anything to eat and the risk of me and my wife Sara falling into a bottomless pit of depression.” 

Massimo Bottura, of Osteria Francescana, Modena, Italy, who spoke at Food On The Edge 2016, shared a recipe he used while working in Refettorio in Rio de Janeiro with Food for Soul, the non-profit organization he founded with his wife Lara, and Gastromotiva. The recipe is a carbonara using a banana peel, “to show that the most incredible things are still possible when you look at the world from another point of view and dare to leave your comfort zone.”

The comfort zone has never been a space that JP McMahon likes to dwell in and is planning Food On the Edge 2021. “Food On The Edge 2021 will take a different format to years gone before”, said JP, ‘but nevertheless we are looking forward to keeping the momentum going and the conversation alive.”

The 121 contributions are being added to and an updated version will be available on Google Books at the end of February, until then the book is available by visiting the Food On The Edge website. Sign up to our newsletter, using the form, below to receive your copy of Lessons from Lockdown: Cooking After Covid.

Week 8: Denis Lovatel (Pizzeria Da Ezio) 8th July 2020

A New Language- Expressing Life and Culture Through Pizza

Denis Lovatel left a lasting impression on those that attended Food on the Edge last October. Now during Covid-19, on hearing that he was to be the first of the ‘FOTE Speaks’ conversations in July, instantly brought me back to that talk. Just seeing his film of him making pizza, in those moments pizza took on a new meaning and left many at FOTE with a ‘mouth-watering’ desire to taste it right there and then!

Denis is a 2nd generation pizza maker based in North-Eastern Italy near the Dolomite mountains. While we all know that pizza is traditionally an Italian dish, he has developed a new concept of pizza. At Pizzeria Da Ezio (his restaurant), pizza is used to promote his locality. Producing a thin and crispy sourdough base he uses wild herbs instead of salt for dough stability and local and foraged produce for the topping.

JP recalled his experience of cooking pizza with Denis at Aniar during FOTE. Using the language of Aniar ingredients at that time (seaweed, duck, oils and chanterelles), his realisation was that pizza can be used as a vehicle to express any culture. While pizza is viewed by many as a ‘fast-food’, JP insists that the future of pizza is in reclaiming the product as a slow food and a local food. He recognised Denis’s approach as an important model for chefs to ask, ‘what is in my locality?’ and to work from there. He reminds us of Christian Puglisi’s approach (Baest,Copenhagen), where pizza is also an expression of his heritage and identity. Aware of a possible resistance by the pizza ‘purists’, both chefs agreed that while tradition needs to be respected, in order for the language of pizza to grow globally, tradition also needs to respect innovation. The possibility of enfolding terroir and producers into the language of pizza will result in greater enjoyment and respect.
In addition to the impact on locale and producers, Denis also highlighted the link between pizza and migration and the role of pizza in food education. For Denis, ‘everyone likes pizza and it can be used as an expression of cultural identity’. JP agreed and that ‘considering the pizza as a flatbread, the language needs to be very open to allowing the food to evolve as people move around the world’. From an education perspective, Denis uses pizza as a language to teach the next generation about food and seasonality. What a creative fun way to communicate this message.

Both chefs discussed the impact Covid-19 had on their relationship with food sourcing and cooking. Mirroring this, during the lockdown, many of us have spoken about baking sourdough, scratch cooking at home, supporting local producers and being more aware of seasonality. I wonder now that we are no longer in lockdown, have these positive habits and intentions abated? Denis’s pizza model encompasses all these intentions. Perhaps this ‘new language’ of pizza could be a practical, creative way to engage/ re-engage us mindfully with life through food?

Week 7: Gunnar Karl Gislason (Dill) 24th June 2020

Insights on Embracing Change During a Pandemic

After a month’s break, the first ‘FOTE Speaks’ session in June was a conversation between JP and Gunnar Karl Gislason in Iceland. Prior to Covid-19, his restaurant, Dill was booked three months in advance with 80-90% of his clientele being tourists. Like Aniar restaurant in Galway, Dill was dependent on American tourists. Reopening for him was ‘amazing’. Not unlike Niklas Ekstedt’s experience on reopening, he too was surprised and delighted by the support from locals. Their patronage was such that he ended up only printing Icelandic menus. Now he also has tourists from the Nordic countries. With the requirement for 2 m social distancing, he has decided that his opening plan will be a gradual rollout of tables over a fixed selection of days. In total his usual covers per night will be reduced from 50 to 35. While Iceland has a very small population (350,000) he is hopeful and optimistic about business at this time, though he is very aware that ‘it could be a hard fall in the fall’! To get through it, for him, it’ s about controlling costs and keeping his team small. JP agreed that it’s about survival to next March or April and that the model that comes from this, needs to be the model used going forward to minimise risk and remain viable.

An interesting element of their conversation was a comparative analysis of the role of location in implementing change. Comparing his experience in the restaurant in New York (where Gunnar worked until last summer), with that of cooking in Iceland, he appreciates the advantages of cooking for a smaller population. In this environment, he has found that change and new ideas are easier to enforce and there is greater efficiency in getting things done. Similarly, JP concurred with this comparison and suggested that running a restaurant in a small or large town enables the chef to take more risks, whereas change in large cities like New York or Dublin may take longer and becomes more of a statement.

Getting a restaurant back up and running in a pandemic is about embracing change from the ‘deep end’! Based on what the chefs discussed in this session could it be that chefs running food businesses in smaller communities have a greater advantage at adapting to this change?

Week 6: Clare Smyth (Core)

Call for Fairness and Respect in Order to Survive

JP’s conversation with Clare Smyth this week was a frank reality check for chef patrons trying to decide on their next move! Her restaurant, Core is just two and a half years old and would usually have a three-month waiting list. Since Covid-19, those three months have become months of closure. Now that the world is different, she is heartbroken that everything has changed for Core.

Decimation is everywhere and she is adamant that the role of farmers in restaurants needs protection. JP agreed. She also calls for fairness. “The key thing is that businesses are haemorrhaging money, we should not have to foot the whole bill for this. There is a need for fairness from the government, landlords and insurance companies, none of this is our fault, everyone should be in this together”.

JP referred to the ‘just adapt’ mantra from some people, that is putting pressure on restaurants to open. For him “there is a limit to adaptability, we’re in food because we are passionate, the last thing is for you to adopt a concept if you don’t feel your heart is in it”. Clare agreed and cautioned that “it could completely destroy your brand, and it may not be worthwhile” it just doesn’t work like the way others perceive it.

Her vision sees the next 12-18 months being crucial for our industry and government supports are critical. Opening needs structure and good guidelines. Professionally, chefs understand food safety and take daily responsibility for implementation, so whatever new regulations come in “we will adopt them and be responsible for our places.” This, therefore, will be a strength on reopening. JP agreed to state that “restaurants will be a safe place to go as they are clean”. She suggests that for those that fulfil the criteria for health if they were deemed safe, that they should be signed off by the EHO and let open and the others should be kept closed and given more government support.

It was encouraging to hear their positivity in relation to the future of the culinary career. For JP “more than ever, there is a great reason to get into cooking”, and Clare sees this time as giving us an opportunity to rebalance the shortage of chefs. “We will get back to normal in about 2-3 years and young people will have a future in the industry, but hospitality needs to be a good profession and lucrative for young people to want to go into it”. This led to further discussion on the changes needed for survival. Clare vehemently highlighted the need for the industry to readdress some of the issues that have impacted its efficiency and professionalism. “We were running on such thin margins before, if we want to survive, it will be a case where we have to tighten up on these things e.g. customers paying for things, cancellations etc. It’s not about cheap! Every seat in a restaurant is so valuable”. According to JP, there can be an attitude that “hospitality is just the worker, an extension of the working class”. Both concurred “Hospitality isn’t free!” People have to treat hospitality the same way they treat other industries. For Clare, “this is now a necessity if we are to survive”.

Week 5: Josh Niland and Alberto Landgraf

Self-reflection on Being a Chef

While this week’s conversations linked in with Josh Niland and Alberto Landgraf in relation to their restaurants, interestingly the key points expressed by both, focused on their personal reflections on their life as a chef and care of their chef community.

Josh Niland (Saint Peter, Sydney)
What happens when two chefs, lovers of ‘fish-cooking’ get to chat at 8am Irish time? Well, the time difference was quickly forgotten, and they soon started talking fish recipes and cookbooks! For Josh, this time has really inspired his creativity, offering ‘Mr Niland at home’ boxes, out of the restaurant and the fish butchery and his plans to open the restaurant with a modified menu in line with his award-winning cookbook ‘The whole fish cookbook’.
He believes that there is a need for humility in conversation at this time, it’s not about “me or my business”. His humility reverberated as he talked and listened. Josh considers himself privileged to be cooking every day and conscious of others in his chef community who may be missing service, he started an initiative working with other chefs creating their dishes for ‘Mr Niland at Home’ His motivation for this is that it “ creates a deadline and a momentum in their week so that they can hopefully feel that half of their brain was being used to trigger all the good endorphins in the brain”. One of his C-19 reflective insights is that as chefs “we are pretty insecure at the best of times”. JP agreed that “this is something that has been overlooked. Your physicality is go go go as a chef, maybe it’s because you are trying to avoid yourself. This is a challenge”. For Josh, we can’t lose the sight of being human, we have to get through this, but we also need to keep an eye on each other.

Alberto Landgraf (Oteque)
Unlike Josh, Alberto has not been cooking, instead, he is doing masterclasses on creativity and “trying to relax”. I was struck by his honesty in relation to his lack of self-care over the years. “For the last 15 years, I haven’t had one moment with nothing to think about”. In contrast, he is now enjoying the silence, relaxing without feeling any guilt, cooking for himself, reading, doing exercise, connecting with people and he feels really well. Like Josh, he too is concerned for his closest chef community, his team, and he is doing all he can to protect them and support them at this time.

This time for reflection and relaxation has also resulted in some deep insights for him in relation to what is really important. His deep learning has been that, we are fragile more so than we imagine, and that “the big lesson is, that we need to get out of this being better human beings, making better choices. “I don’t want to go back to the way I was feeling 2 or 3 months ago. I don’t want to chase this; I want to chase peace. Peace and silence have been overlooked for years, it’s time for us to go back and understand that those are the real values”.
What a revelation during a pandemic from one of the World’s top young chefs and it affirms the increasing need for self-care education for chefs and ‘The Mindful Kitchen’ module as inspired by Food on the Edge.

Week 4:   Niklas Ekstedt (Ekstedt) and Kristian Baumann (Restaurant 108)

Positive Mindsets and Reinventing Michelin Restaurants in a Pandemic

Niklas Ekstedt
A visit to the Nordic region was the treat this week as FOTESPEAKS sessions visited Sweden and Norway. Sweden’s approach to Covid-19 has caused controversy as it did not go into full lockdown and according to the Niklas Ekstedt Swedes are like ‘lab rats’ and the country is experiencing the most attention since ABBA won the Eurovision! In relation to restaurants, they are allowed to open if there are less than 50 covers, maintain the recommended of 1.5 m for social distancing and limit the dining time for guests. Niklas is quite relaxed about how his business has changed. As a Michelin restaurant in the middle of a residential area, he no longer has tourist and business customers to rely on. Instead, he has found a new clientele, residents in his local community. Very quickly at the start of the crisis, he adapted his menu to a shorter 4-course tasting, for a cheaper price and has ongoing going communication and marketing initiative in the local media to engage this young clientele. This has been the recipe for his success at this time. He has gone from being a high-end restaurant where only foreigners go, to a local restaurant catering for Swedes.

Kristian Baumann (Restaurant 108)
“It feels great to be back, it makes me feel so much better, I feel at home in the restaurant, I realised how much I actually missed being here, being with the team and listening to music.” This gives you a sense of the optimism that emanates from Kristian Baumann. His ethos for the customer dining experience is to ‘create a vibrant restaurant where people can have fun and relax’. In the current climate, he also wants these customers to feel safe. Kristian has been working on a new dining concept over the last eight months, inspired by the dining traditions in Korean restaurants and temples. The tasting menu ($190) has been removed, the new tray concept is more affordable ($58) and more people can come out, celebrate and enjoy the food at the restaurant for less money.
JP shared his professional and business challenges in deciding on possible adaptions for his restaurant offering at ‘Aniar’. Juggling ‘what’s in your heart at well and be true to identity’ and ‘the possibility of having to flip the concept is hard’. Alongside this, he views Noma’s adaptation to a burger and wine offering as an important marker, giving confidence of flipping the opinion to ‘maybe we can change and still go back’. Juxtaposing this is the opinion- just do it, you need it to survive!

Kristian agreed and said “you should do what you feel like, if you do that, do what’s in your heart- that’s going to be great and it doesn’t matter what the format looks like. This is a unique opportunity to press, control, alt, delete and start over and be completely unapologetic to what you want to do and just go for it. We all have to embrace a new start, don’t look back just keep moving forward, submerge ourselves into cooking again. It’s very important now that we have a positive mindset. This will save us, as it will dictate how our mind is going to be as soon as you accept this you will move forward.”

In many ways, this chat exposed the care and camaraderie that FOTE creates among chefs. I’ve no doubt that this chat inspired the listeners. Kristian’s positivity, clarity of mind, care, love of cooking, team focus, and mindset is what positive kitchen culture should be about.