Get ready to savour — Galway Food Festival is just a week away

A scene from last year's inaugural event — but this year the Galway Food Festival has grown and grown.

By Declan Varley

Next Thursday, the excellence of food in Galway will be highlighted as the second Galway Food Festival gets underway. The five-day Festival will run from March 28 – April 1 during the Easter Bank Holiday Weekend. And there is something for everyone.

Over 70 restaurants, food outlets and food producers will participate and more than 70 individual events, food demonstrations and talks will be held throughout the city including the Festival Village at Fishmarket Square, Spanish Arch.

Celebrating Galway as a good food destination, the Festival this year is particularly aiming to highlight the importance of food provenance, sustainability and healthy eating and to develop frameworks which will encourage and promote increased trade for all local food outlets and their suppliers.

The festival will again be a citywide event involving outlets and locations throughout Galway and its environs, and will feature events and activities at each venue including, restaurant trails, tastings, food talks, cookery demonstrations, baking demonstrations and wine and craft beer workshops. There will be Open Air Food Markets promoting local produce and producers including the renowned Galway Market, a Festival Village at Fishmarket Square, Spanish Arch, the Moycullen Friday Market and on Saturday March 30 there will be a one-day revival of the once renowned Woodquay Country Market.

Cookery Demonstrations will take place from Friday to Sunday at the Festival Village and will include, Artisan Baking, Wild Food, Great Fish for Good Friday, Native versus Rock Oyster Tasting, Using the Whole Hen, Nose to Tail Cooking, Healthy Cooking, How to Cook The Perfect Steak, Local Sustainable Suppers Using Modern Ingredients, Home Cooked Luscious Leftovers, Sushi, Cooking with Seaweed, How to Make Your Own Pasta and Making Your Own “Beef” Burgers.

A series of Food Talks will take place from Friday to Sunday at Galway City Museum on topics such as, Making Sense of Food Labels – The Secret to Healthy Eating, Vegetable Gardening, Marketing and Food – From Farm to Fork, Innovation in Food: Molecular Gastronomy & Note by Note Cooking, History of Wine in Galway, Culinary Tourism in the West and The Great Debate – No Such Thing as Cheap Food.

Families can savour the delicious array of foods available throughout the weekend along with plenty of family-fun food events for children including A Visit by the Agri Aware Mobile, Spring Eating Cookie Monster, Fun and Simple Cooking for Kids and mouth-watering Children’s and Adult’s Chocolate Masterclasses.

Download full Programme details at www.galwayfoodfestival.com and follow us on Twitter #GalwayFood2013 and Facebook for all the latest news.