Our first season of Beár Bia has been one hell of an adventure. We have recorded in 12 different locations across 6 counties. Along the way, we have showcased 24 different Irish food producers, 22 Irish drinks producers as well as 13 hospitality or retail businesses.

It's been extremely inspiring getting to know all the remarkable makers of some of Ireland's most beloved culinary offerings. Bringing them together and pairing them at the same table for each episode has not just been a great privilege but it's allowed us to shine a light on what a more complete experience of Irish cuisine can look like.

When we saw that our final two episodes would land in late December, we knew we had to go festive! So we called upon a few friends to see if they could share their favourite Irish Christmas and Irish New Year's Day meals and we would pair some Irish drinks with them. Each pairing falls into a different episode but they both feature the same guests and each episode was recorded in Row Wines on Coppinger Row in Dublin.

Our very special guests were social media star and musician Garron Noone and freelance content creator and food writer, Sian Conway.

Part 01 went a little something like this...

EPISODE 11 - THE PEPPERPOT CAFÉ CHRISTMAS SANDWICH PAIRED WITH THE "HOLY IRISH TRINITY" COCKTAIL

Garron Noone has amassed a colossal social media following that is into the millions. The proud Mayo man is an incredibly talented musician and songwriter but is also hugely loved for his skills as a comedian. His videos cover a multitude of Irish cultural topics - from mullets to Met Éireann!
But he will very often talk all about Irish food and has professed his love for Irish Christmas dinners and hatred of the effects of shrinkflation on Christmas sweets and snacks. So, we asked him if he would like to get stuck into one of the nation's finest Christmas sandwiches and he kindly obliged.

It was made by The Pepperpot Cafe in Dublin city's Powerscourt Centre and features their house-baked focaccia bread, Irish turkey & ham, chestnut stuffing, Brussel sprouts, cranberry sauce and mustard mayo.

We paired it with one of Oisin's cocktails, the Holy Irish Trinity - so-called as it features three Irish ingredients that go perfectly with each other, Irish whiskey, cider & elderflower. This particular one was mixed with 35 ml of Powers Irish Whiskey, 2 teaspoons of Richmount Elderflower Cordial and 120 ml of MacIvor's Dry Irish Cider. It is the kind of pairing that is very complimentary as the cocktail is light but spicy and enhances the richness of the sandwich.

Our second guest Sian Conway was on hand to share the wonderful Yuletide bounty, which also included the house Connemara oysters from Row Wines that are dressed in a chilli & ginger vinaigrette and for a sweet finish, some stunning mince pies courtesy of The Cupcake Bloke, Graham Herterich.

We really hope you enjoy this festive episode and thank you for listening throughout the year - wishing you all a very Merry Christmas!

Oisín and Dee

The county of Kildare is renowned the world over for its thriving equine industry but more recently, its food & drink producers have taken a bigger share of the spotlight. At the invitation of Kildare Local Enterprise Office, we were thrilled to pop down and check out a couple of leading lights from the county's ever-burgeoning culinary scene.

It is well documented that St Brigid of Kildare was quite the fan of beer so as a mark of respect to the great lady herself, we decided to focus on the current breweries in her home county especially as some of Ireland's best independent breweries are situated there!

So we recorded the episode in Farrington's Brewery in Rathcoffey where they also have a superb bar and restaurant with an adjoining event space. A brilliant, all-in-one business where they can even host a wedding overlooking the brewery area.

For our first pairing, their head chef Kuba Wlodarski took three different beers to make a dish with the local Feighcullen Farm free-range chicken. It was brined overnight in their IPA before he made a beer batter with their stout to deep fry the chicken in and served it alongside their Auger's Twist light lager as an excellent accompaniment. This was truly a symphony of flavours and such an exciting way to celebrate their in-house beers.

Head brewer Phil Bizzell was on hand to talk us through their portfolio and tell us more about their beer philosophy there.

Our second pairing came courtesy of another two excellent Kildare businesses. Bill Laukitis from Rye River Brewing Co in Celbridge joined us. He is their head brewer and shared details of his own personal work journey from the USA and the incredible accomplishments of the whole Rye River Brewing team, now made up of 65 employees.

Ryan Lally of Grá Pizza from Celbridge popped down with a pizza that the Michelin-starred chef JP McMahon of Aniar collaborated with him on. It's made with Garryhinch mushrooms, roasted potatoes from Ballymakenny, Toonsbridge mozzarella, smoked provola from Barbavilla dairy, Achill Island sea salt, brown bread crumb and buttermilk gel. This all-Irish piece of pizza perfection was paired with the rich, smoky Nocturne Stout from Rye River Brewing. The contrast and the intensity of flavours bounced off each other so well.

Kildare has such an incredible array of food & drink producers there now. You can read more about them here in this link.

To join the Flavours of Kildare Network, hit this link here.

The wonderful Smithwick's is one of Ireland's most iconic brands. It is deeply connected to its hometown of Kilkenny and is particularly well celebrated by the local hospitality community there. Kilkenny also boasts a highly active festival circuit so we wanted to tick a couple of boxes while down there. A fantastic trip was had where we hung out in The Smithwick's Experience to learn more about their beers, sampled some excellent food pairings and got the inside scoop for this week's hugely popular Kilkenomics Festival.

Upon arrival to The Smithwick's Experience we were given a tour by their beer expert Simon Walsh. After familiarizing ourselves with the incredible legacy of the Smithwick's family and their brewery that goes back to 1710, Simon opened up the podcast recording by sharing even more of his beer and history knowledge.

We were then joined by Kilkenomics Festival co-founder and Kilkenny native Naoise Nunn. He detailed not only what the very unique festival is all about but also gave us his recommendations for must see shows that are taking place across the city from November 7th to 10th.

If you're one of the thousands heading to the festival this week, we strongly suggest you pay a visit to The Smithwick's Experience and while you're in the city - enjoy some Smithwick's food pairings served up in two of Kilkenny's best bars & restaurants. We were lucky enough to taste them and they are superb!

The first pairing came courtesy of Paris, Texas - the wildly successful bar and smokehouse on 92 High St.

Their in house flavour fanatic and head mixologist, Chris Hennessy came along and brought with him some southeast pork ribs that were abundantly spiced and smoked in house for 8 hours with wood chips from Highbank Orchard just outside of Kilkenny. They were the perfect accompaniment to a cold glass of Smithwick's Pale Ale, cutting through the richness of the meat.

Our second pairing was focused on the classic Smithwick's Red Ale and was brought in by Emma Teesdale, head chef of Langton's Bar & Restaurant, a Kilkenny institution and a major hub for the Kilkenomics Festival. Her dish was locally reared feather blade beef that was not only marinated overnight in Smithwick's Red Ale but it is also slow cooked in it too. She served it with a Smitwick's Red Ale sauce, colcannon and root vegetables. Needless to say, sipping the same ale alongside it was tremendously exciting. It is a remarkable Kilkenny dish and hugely popular in Langton's.

The Smithwick's Experience runs tours 7 days a week and the Kilkenomics Festivalis on from Nov 7th to 10th. So now's the perfect time to visit Kilkenny for some festival action with some great beers & food.

It's just a couple of hours from Dublin and boasts spectacular coastlines, amazing heritage sites and some rather brilliant food & drink producers. We're talking about north county Down and the Ards peninsula, a culinary destination to rival any other on the island of Ireland.

Thanks to a kind invitation from the Irish Food Writers Guild and Visit Ards and North Down, we recently hopped on a whistlestop tour of this beautiful part of the world. In addition to local food markets, farm visits and an incredible walled garden, we took in two different distilleries. And each one laid on a local food pairing for us, perfectly matched with their own Irish spirits.

The first came in courtesy of Copeland Distilery. Located right on the shoreline of Donaghadee, this coastal distillery was built on the grounds of a former cinema. They produce a range of spirits including rum, vodka and Irish whiskey. It was their classic gin that was served to us that day which they distil with local botanicals like pine needles and the sea flower, pink maritima. Copeland's head bartender, Sean Pedlow, mixed up the classic gin into a Collins-style cocktail made with fresh autumnal pears, lemon and elderflower tonic water. The perfect accompaniment to a stunning dish prepared by the guest chefs, Roz Allen and Andy Turner from Hara at Home. This husband and wife team have a remarkable pedigree that has seen them work in Irish Michelin-starred restaurants to 5 star Caribbean hotels. They served up a house-made, beetroot-cured local salmon with apple, wilted fennel and horseradish.

For the second pairing, we made our way to the wonderful Echlinville Distilery in Kircubbin. Home to some of the most celebrated whiskeys in Ireland, such as the exceptional Dunville's - they also distill award-winning gins, vodkas and poitíns. We were truly spoiled by Jarlath Watson from the distillery team as he cracked open a bottle of the Echlinville, The Beginning - their single pot still. Every element of this 7-year-old whiskey was made on site, the barley is grown there before it is fermented, distilled, matured and bottled on the grounds. To help find a pairing for this landmark release, Laura Bradley from the pioneering retail store and delicatessen, Indie Füde. With a location in Comber and another in Belfast, Laura and her team have been unwavering advocates for independent food producers from all around Ireland. She chose to bring along the sumptuous Young Buck cheese, crafted by Mike Thomson of Mike's Fancy Cheese in Newtonards. A divine combo where the spice forward whiskey was tempered perfectly by the rich blue cheese.

We hope you enjoy this episode and a huge thank you again to Visit Ards North Down Tourism for inviting us up and helping us organise this episode.

Oisín & Dee

Tipperary might well be renowned the world over for its majestic castles and monuments, but here at Beár Bia HQ - the most important thing you need to know about it, is that it's Dee's home county! So it was obviously just a question of time before we made the "trip to Tipp" and tasted some of its best culinary offerings.

The Tipperary Food Producers network is a community of artisan producers working together to create quality, nourishing food and sustainability. We reached out to them to see what kinds of local food & drink pairings we could showcase and we were spoiled for choice. Their diverse community includes cheesemakers, beekeepers, fruit farmers, cider makers, butchers, bakers, and creators of various delightful products such as sauces, jams, ice cream, sorbet, vegetable oil, sweets, chocolates, crisps, corn tortillas and peanut butter.

Representing the Tipperary Food Producers Network on the day was Nuala Hickey, also of Hickey's Bakery in Clonmel whose amazing barm brack we sampled to start the day off nicely. We then hung out with James O'Donoghue, owner of Longways Cider who are based just outside of Carrick on Suir. He brought a few bottles of his Tipperary Cider with him as well some Con's Apple Cider from The Apple Farm.

James paired Con's Apple Cider with some excellent bacon ribs from Crowe's Farm & Butchers who are based in Dundrum, Tipperary and have been in operation since 1981. They were braised in the cider itself before being slow cooked with spices. The cool dryness of the cider cut through the rich meat and made for a beautiful autumnal all Tipperary food & drink combo.

For the second pairing, James cracked open a few of his own Longways Tipperary Cider. He then turned his attention to the golden fork winning Cashel Blue cheese and cut off small pieces to place on the Tipperary made Blanco Niño smoky chipotle corn tortilla chips. This totally surprised us and turned out to be a decadent, yet perfectly flavour filled tableside or bar room snack. Rich, unctuous blue cheese spread on a spicy, crunchy tortilla chip plays wonderfully against the crisp multi layered cider.

Up and down the 32 counties, there are vast amounts of bar, restaurant and hotel owners whose great work in celebrating the entire Irish culinary landscape needs to be showcased. They are Irish Hospitality Heroes and for our sixth episode, we wanted to shine a light on what the newly reopened Coppinger team are doing. So we sat down with co-owner and founder Marc Bereen and executive chef of the group, Daniel Hannigan.

Coppinger Row, as it was first called, opened in 2009 and its perfect mix of refined Mediterranean cuisine, relaxed atmosphere and the carefully curated & created drinks menu was an instant success. Over the years, the two brothers and founders Marc & Conor Bereen had developed a large and loyal fanbase. It was as common to see touring A-List celebrities dining there as it was a local. From an Irish hospitality perspective, Coppinger Row was the first restaurant in Dublin's city center to place their cocktails front and centre of their menu and they have always strongly featured Irish spirits. And even with a Mediterranean flavour focused food menu, Irish provenance was always of great importance to their team and very much continues to this day.

In 2021, Coppinger Row sadly had to close but through sheer grit and determination, they reopened in July of this year. More floor space has been added, the kitchen and bar areas have been enlarged and a beautiful refit of all the interiors has been meticulously carried out.

Now called Coppinger - the Bereen brothers have hit the ground running with it since.

For the two Irish food & drink pairings they did with us, we featured Redbreast 12 year old, single pot still Irish whiskey.

The first dish is now actually the most popular main course on the new Coppinger menu - Andarl pork chop from Andarl farm in Mayo, nduja hispi cabbage, burnt apple & hazelnut. The pork is brined then barbecued and dressed in a Granny Smith apple & hazelnut dressing alongside charred hispi cabbage, which is topped with nduja honey and finished with a burnt apple puree. All the incredible layers of flavour, smoke and textures found on this plate were perfectly matched by the Rooibos cocktail, made with Redbreast 12, rooibos tea, vanilla syrup and bitters.

That was then followed by a whiskey and apple cruller with vanilla ice cream. It's comprised of a beautiful choux pastry deep fried and coated in a spiced sugar that sits on salted caramel and filled with a Redbreast 12 year old whiskey & apple compote, topped with vanilla ice cream and a lovely tuile. As a special add on in the restaurant, they offer a serving of Redbreast 12 for just €10 to savour alongside the dessert. This pairing is an absolute joy as the rich spice of the whiskey harmonizes so well with the sweetness and sharpness of the food. It also is a fantastic example of how a restaurant can so easily bring a beautiful Irish whiskey into their food offering.

Showcasing hospitality heroes within the Irish food & drink scene was something that we always wanted to do on the Beár Bia podcast. All around the 32 counties, there are huge amounts of bar, restaurant and hotel owners who are game changers when it comes to pairing our native culinary offerings. None more so than Seáneen Sullivan from L Mulligan Grocer in Stoneybatter, Dublin.

The famous pub and restaurant has been a firm favourite of locals and visitors alike since they started trading in 2010. And from that moment onwards, Irish food & beverages have been at the forefront of their identity. As exemplified by the first sentence on the homepage of their website, which reads, "We believe that Irish produce is special, and worth celebrating."

Seáneen and her team were one of the first operators in Ireland to not just host whiskey and beer dinners, but they were also one of the first to have written suggestions of Irish drinks pairings next to their food items on the menu.

We gave Seáneen free reign when it came to the Irish food & drink pairings for the episode. She decided to serve two of her favourite pairings that she has created over the years, the now legendary L Mulligan Scotch Egg made with and paired with two beers from Trouble Brewing, who were the first brewery that they worked with - Ambush and Deoch Na gCloch, the latter is a beer that's name is linked to Stoneybatter.
This was followed by the black pudding toastie made with McCarthy's, Inch House and De Roiste puddings, Ardsallagh Goats Cheese and Blackcurrant Jam, made by Seaneen and made with blackcurrants from her garden, paired with their Irish Kir Royale - Stillgarden Berrissimo and Dan Kelly's Cider - as an alternative and bonus pairing to this toastie, we also tasted Tipperary Whiskey, a limited edition that had been made for L. Mulligan Grocer.

As stand alone items, these dishes are sublime and as comforting as gastropub food can possibly get! But when paired with Seáneen's selected beverages, not only do they compliment each other so well but you experience a beautiful representation of Irish food & drinks enjoyed side by side.

For episode four, we are taking a trip to Dublin's Liberties and making our way to Roe & Co Irish Whiskey Distillery. Their 2024 Summer Garden Series is in full swing. Now in its fifth year, it sees the front outdoor space of the James's Street distillery turned into a dining area with a rotating set of guest chefs and restaurants who each create a bespoke menu to pair with Roe & Co whiskey and cocktails.

From August 1st until the 24th, The Salt Project will be the resident restaurant. Founded by Kildare-based Chef, Caomhán de Bri takes a fresh new approach to street food with his nomadic food trailer that has travelled coast to coast popping up in scenic locations all over Ireland. Caomhán has worked in professional kitchens for over a decade, including a year in London in Gordon Ramsay’s Michelin-starred restaurant, Maze. Having grown up with a huge appreciation and respect for food, passed down to him by his parents, Caomhán’s menus have always had a strong focus on food provenance. Visitors to The Salt Project can expect a "Medieval inspired Modern Dublin" menu, offering a series of Blaisíní (small bites) dishes that have been specially designed to showcase locally grown and artisan ingredients from small-scale producers specific to each region

Colin Martin, Operations Manager with Roe & Co, joined us and brought with him a cocktail made with Stillgarden Glas 55, black salt, black lime, and black cumin, with clarified lime and vermouth finished with pickle juice and a spritz of fresh lime.
This was paired with Caomhán's "Fishamble Street" starter made with Lambay Island Crab, Dublin Bay Prawns, Irish Sea Lemon Sole Tempura and a Sea Veg Dip. The fresh, hyper-local seafood worked a charm when enjoyed alongside the deep citrus notes of the cocktail.

This was followed by a Ballymakenny Farm potato flatbread with caramelised Toons Bridge cultured butter veg, Mc Nally’s Organic Farm August pickled, fresh & grilled vegetable bounty, Salt Project garum and foraged flowers. Colin paired this amazing medley of Irish produce with a simple neat serving of Roe & Co Single Malt Solera, a sumptuous whiskey filled with complex layers of hazelnut and orchard fruits that harmonized wonderfully with the food.

The curator of the Summer Series, Ali Dunworth sat in for the recording and shared with us her inspiration for how she so deftly nurtures an incredible community of Irish food talents for Roe & Co. It is an excellent body of work that not only highlights the great chefs but how well their dishes can be enjoyed with the versatility of Irish whiskey.

This is another cracker of an episode, we hope you enjoy listening and make sure and subscribe for more!

Oisin & Dee