Fine dining at Electric Picnic
AS it is officially Festival Season, have your camper vans, caravans and tents at the ready. Friday August 31 until Sunday September 2 is Electric Picnic time.
As a result, we had a very busy start to the week at l’Ecrivain Restaurant. Derry and the team cooked and served breakfast to launch Electric Picnic’s Finest dining experience for this year’s Banquet at the festival, sponsored by Tesco Finest.
The Electric Picnic team decorated the courtyard to make the normally demure front of our restaurant look like the entrance to The EP Banquet.
It was magical but it had to be dismantled for business as usual on Monday evening. Such a shame, as it was so authentic, but it was a great start to a rainy, overcast miserable Monday. The Banquet is a five star dining experience for festival goers and this year the proceeds from the tickets are being split between Pieta House and Temple Street Children’s Hospital.
Darling Derry is a big EP fan and attends this iconic event at the beautiful Stradbally Estate every year. He is really looking forward to heading up the silverservice event at with help from Clodagh McKenna, and has created a mouth-watering fivecourse menu.
Electric Picnic is renowned for having some of the best festival food available, and this year it’s raising the bar while at the same time raising much-needed funds for these two very worthwhile charities.
The luscious line-up of food will consist of a starter of Irish salmon gravlax, dry-aged Irish Angus beef followed by honeyroasted peach with Amaretti crumble for dessert. Vegetarians will be treated to sumptuous tempura vegetables with Asian fusion flavours, gnocchi with wild Irish mushrooms, leek paired with truffle and parmesan dressing. Seats are limited, with four sittings over the weekend, two on Saturday and Sunday at 1pm and 5.30pm with each sitting lasting approximately two hours.
The dress code is Black Tie and Festival Fabulous. Attire will be provided, but guests are more than welcome to bring along their Sunday best. Tickets to the Fine Dining Picnic are €120 and are now available at giv2go.com.
Although I’m in a cast, I’m getting the best care. So I have to congratulate Ruby Walsh on his win with horse Easy Game at Ballybritt Races in Galway on Monday.
I was back with the consultant in his rooms not far from the racecourse itself, and was delighted to hear the news on my way home.
I have met this wonderful jockey on more than one occasion in a cast or boot after a fall and he literally gets back up on the horse time and time again.
A lesson to all of us. None of us are getting any younger but when you are in a waiting room and everyone has something wrong with them that is visible, for example a broken leg, knee, foot or toe in a cast or a boot — and in my case my left foot and my toe — everyone talks. It is like we all have a common bond, no matter what age you are.
There was talk outside the plaster room from an older gent, clearly in the know that Ruby was indeed going to win, as it was important that he made an impact on his return as a one of Ireland’s leading jockeys. I am not a betting person unless I am at a race track itself, which is not very often. But this was obviously a great tip.
The meeting at Ballybritt continues all week and I heard that it was even harder to get a hotel room than usual in Galway and that people book from year to year. All the restaurants and bars are booked solid — it was mentioned that the atmosphere in Galway is electric, despite the heavy downfalls of rain.
If I get any more tips this week I will have to ignore them as I passed this one up. Karma. I will have to stop procrastinating!