Dyed Green

Chef Paul Cunningham , based in Dundrum, County Down, walks the walk like no chef we’ve ever met before. The owner of “slow food fast food” Scopers in Dundrum Village and the upscale pop-up Mourne Larder , Cunningham sources all of his food from within a 15 mile radius and never sets foot in a grocery store. His business model puts his ethos into practice in a way we’ve never seen, and he’s succes...

A special broadcast of Autumn and Adrienne Maree Brown 's interview with Claire Davey , an apothecarist, distiller, and spiritual leader from County Galway: We found Claire Davey on the summer solstice and bring her to you this Samhain week. Claire shares sacred Celtic Cosmology teachings about moving into the sacred delicious darkness of this phase of our (northern hemisphere) year. Dyed Green is...

Victory Nwabu-Ekeoma is the founding editor of Bia! Zine , a magazine that celebrates the voices, food, and stories of immigrant communities in Ireland. Unlike most other food-related publications, Bia! doesn’t concern itself with the hottest new chefs or trends in food and restaurants. Rather, the zine is a place to highlight and share the stories behind food—ones which emphasize how immigrants l...

Garry Hughes is the chef at The Shelbourne , one of Dublins’ finest and also oldest hotels, celebrating their 200th year in 2024. While the phrase hotel restaurant doesn’t always conjure excitement, the Shelbourne under Gary’s leadership has developed a culinary program that is exciting, creative, locally sourced, and most important—delicious. On this week’s episode, we speak with Garry about the...

Passing through Ballycastle, a charming seaside town on the Causeway Coast in Ireland’s northeast corner, one wouldn’t necessarily expect to find a world-class bakery serving sourdough breads and creative, beautiful pastries. But after spending time learning and traveling abroad, this is exactly what Ciara O’hArtlaighle and her husband, Dara, created when they opened Ursa Minor . Not only does Urs...

Niall Sabongi fell in love with seafood as a child living on the east coast of Ireland, where his father would bring him to the beach to find cockles and mussels to eat for dinner. Today, Niall is at the forefront of the conversation around Irish seafood. As a chef, he founded fish-centric favorite spots like Klaw , Saltwater Grocery , and most recently, The Seafood Cafe . While the stereotypical...

We often talk about how Irish food is not just Guinness and potatoes…and yet! A real Irish culinary experience would not be complete without a pint of the good stuff and some delicious spuds! Eunice Power is exactly what her name implies—a powerhouse as a chef and small business owner. In addition to being the director of the West Waterford Festival of Food , Eunice is a caterer and the owner of A...

Our guest this week is  Kevin Burke of Library Street , a newcomer on the Dublin restaurant scene that was recently named Best Newcomer at the Irish Restaurant Awards. Kevin spent some time working at the two Michelin-star Patrick Guillbaud early in his career before heading to London where he lived and worked for 8 years before returning home to Ireland. We talk to Kevin about the inspiration beh...

When you walk in the doors of Pota Café in the Connemara Gaeltacht there’s a buzz in the air. Pota’s atmosphere is filled with community spirit and the sweet scent of freshly baked bread, while the melody of people conversing in Irish fills the air. It’s this community spirit, as well as their prolific use of local produce and seafood, that led the cafe to win the award for best café in the countr...

Have you ever wondered how much blood sausage a person can eat in one sitting? If so, you’ve come to the right place. Artie Clifford and Fallon Moore are the founders of Blas na hÉireann , the Irish Food Awards. Blas, which means ‘taste’ in Irish, was born in Dingle in 2007, and has organized an annual celebration of the best in Irish food and drink every year since. With some help from University...

Is there anything Kwanghi Chan can’t do?! The Dublin-based chef and cookbook author owns two restaurants, a food truck, a retail sauce company, and regularly appears on TV. Born in Hong Kong, Kwanghi moved to Donegal when he was eight and grew up cooking in his uncle’s Chinese takeaway. As an adult, he chose a culinary education over art school and went on to work in a number of Michelin-starred r...

The diversity of Irish whiskey today is in a new league compared to just 20 years ago when a few big brands dominated the market. One of the things that defines a modern Irish whiskey is the story behind it, and few have as compelling a story as Slane Irish Whiskey . Distilled on the grounds of Slane Castle —a site famous in part for hosting huge outdoor rock concerts since the 1980s—the brand use...

Nestled in the Mourne Mountains, along an old country road that was once a brandy smuggling route, you’ll find Ireland’s smallest distillery. Built in a renovated old cowshed, the Killowen Distillery in County Down was started by architect-turned-distiller Brendan Carty in 2017. Today, he runs the business with just four employees, himself included. This is our first episode profiling an Irish dis...

It’s an exciting time in the food world in Ireland, so it should come as no surprise that, like restaurant pop-ups and artisanal producers, the landscape is ripe for new approaches to food writing too. Enter Jane Gleeson and Guzzle magazine , a new publication focused on the intersection of art and food, poised to make a splash with its unique perspectives.  On this episode of Dyed Green, we speak...

John and Sally McKenna have been have been documenting the Irish food scene since before it even existed. Setting out in the 90s to explore the world of Irish artisan producers, they began publishing their perennially popular and highly respected McKenna’s Guides back when the Irish food scene consisted of a few cheesemakers spread out in the country, and no notable restaurants to speak of all.  T...

Picture this: an organic farm on 250 acres of soft, green, rolling hills on a remote peninsula bordering the Atlantic Ocean—an idyllic location to grow vegetables and raise cows and pigs. At first glance, it seems like the Ferguson family—the multi-generational crew behind Gubbeen Farm outside Schull, West Cork—is living the dream: father Tom is the herdsman; mother Giana, the pioneering cheesemak...

Our guests this week are Tommy McLarnon and Shannon Smith of the Save the Boyne campaign, which has been organizing local residents and concerned citizens to stop meat processing factory Dawn Meats from dumping wastewater into the Boyne River.  The Boyne River is an important historical site and part of Celtic mythology, playing a key role in events like the Battle of the Boyne and stories like th...

As the Great Resignation and the repercussions from the pandemic continue to accelerate changes already underway in the hospitality industry, more and more chefs are looking for ways to stay creatively involved in food outside of traditional restaurant kitchens. Keith Coleman is one such chef whose career has taken some unexpected turns. After working at Fumbally Cafe , he was the head chef at the...

The Irish poet and philosopher John O’Donohue described being born in the Burren, with its surreal, limestone landscape as a “huge, wild invitation to extend your imagination.” Located in County Clare, on Ireland’s west coast, not only is the Burren is one of the country’s most biodiverse regions—seventy percent of Irish native flora can be found there—it has been grazed for 6,000 years. Today, th...

Chef Danni Barry became the second woman in Ireland ever to earn a Michelin star while working at Eipic in Belfast in 2016—the first being none other than the legend Myrtle Allen, at Ballymaloe House in 1975. Barry is a powerhouse in the kitchen with a resumé that any young chef would aspire to. After coming up under the tutelage of Michael Deane, Barry worked at L’Enclume, Restaurant 23, and Cart...

Eoin Ó Broin is truly a man of many talents: not only is he Sinn Féin ’s spokesperson on Housing, Local Government & Heritage and a TD for Dublin Mid-West, he’s also a prolific author, an avid home chef, and a former musician—there’s even a Spotify playlist dedicated to him.  Eoin is an outspoken proponent of the need for government to invest in public and affordable housing and on this issue, he’...

If artisanal wheat varieties, milling your own grain, and regenerative agriculture make you hot around the collar, then this is the show for you! Our guest is Fintan Keenan , a regenerative grain farmer and flour miller who runs a 60 hectare organic farm on Bakkegården near Gyrstinge, in Denmark. Born and raised on a beef and dairy farm in County Monaghan, Keenan grows and mills heirloom wheat in...

What’s the difference between feeding people and actually nourishing them? Our guest this week has garnered international acclaim for her “Magic Poo Bread,” a 17-ingredient loaf designed with care to provide ultimate gut health. Karen O’Donoghue is the owner of the Happy Tummy Co. a bakery and cooking school in Westport, County Mayo. Driven by her mother’s cancer diagnosis and her own issues with...

What makes Irish food special? It’s not fancy techniques or luxury preparations, but the high quality of simple ingredients—hiding in plain sight all along. In an age where we can import nearly anything from anywhere, it’s a powerful statement to recognize that what makes Irish food unique is its ingredients, from produce, to foraged greens and berries, to seafood, and of course dairy (especially...

How can we use food to strengthen communities? How can small businesses contribute positively to local economies? How can food businesses support sustainable ecology? How can we create nurturing environments for workers? These are questions that chefs and restaurant owners are constantly asking, even as they also struggle to keep their doors open in the midst of many intersecting challenges. This...