With over 30,000 visitors predicted to visit its many stalls and stages over the next four days, Taste of Dublin has kicked off for another spectacular year.
Arguably the biggest date on the foodie calendar, Taste runs from 13-16 June and has grown in tandem with Ireland's thriving food scene, welcoming everyone from the country's brightest new innovators and chefs to its seasoned professionals and food educators.
We caught up with Nina Massey, the Marketing Manager from Equinox events who run Taste of Dublin, to hear how the festival has changed in recent years and what her top picks are for things to see, eat and drink.
Ireland's food scene has shifted so much in the last few years. How has Taste of Dublin shifted alongside that?
Taste, as a model, started showcasing Michelin-starred restaurants and chefs. And now, especially through our COVID year in 2021 when we got to go ahead alongside some of the pilot events, we were the only event that went that wasn't a pilot event. That allowed us to have more casual dining, food trucks.
We have a real myriad of food creators and we prefer that rather than just a chef lineup, we have culinary creators as well. The food and drink industry is one of the most innovative and adaptable industries we've ever come across. So it's a selection of different food, culinary creators, I would say.
What's different this year in the programme? Is there anything unusual you're doing this year?
We have a lot of brands and partners that join us every year and create different activations. This year we have some really exciting new ones. So we have the Jysk Garden Party, we have Tanqueray doing gin* masterclasses all weekend. O'Brien's Wine are back with us doing wine expert masterclasses. Tony's Chocolonely do chocolate making experiences. We have whiskey tasting with Fercoll and Irish whiskey.
We really do try and say there's something for everyone's taste, pardon the pun, but everyone can discover their own unique a taste trail around the event.
What is the process for a food producer getting a stall, especially if they're up and coming?
Because we've been running for so many years, we have a lot of relationships within the industry. There's a lot of restaurant partners and chefs, and when they have new ventures, they reach out to us with ideas and concepts. So a lot of them will return.
We try to keep our eyes and ears to the ground and just see who's new, who's up and coming, what people are doing within the industry. It's really an invitation basis, but people will get in touch and we stay in touch.
We do things called Taste Clubs around the year as well, so we try to stay in touch with the industry across the country and whether we can facilitate them at the event because it's a lot to take on for a restaurant.
Is there anything this year that you and the team saw as an emerging or trending cuisine or a food style that you're showcasing this year?
What we encourage restaurants to do is show who they are but create off-menu items with a real sense of their own identity. So new for this year, we have Neighbourhood from Naas, and you can see it in their menu that it shows who they are. They have things like scallops, they have nduja, they've done their own spin on a croquette.
What we try and do is make sure that they're all doing something different. We audit the menus and review them, but I think there's a lot of actual Irish beef being used at the moment.
Is there a one dish that you would recommend visitor to try?
Well, our best dish overall [in the Best of Taste awards] was the gunpowder Masala Dosa from Dosa Dosa, so we have to recommend that one.
