Last week, Adare Manor’s Loughlin Druhan and his culinary team took to the highways on a round-the-country trip aimed at meeting over 100 suppliers and producers for the luxury hotel, which is scheduled to open before the end of this year.
LAST week, Adare Manor’s Loughlin Druhan and his culinary team took to the highways on a round-the-country trip aimed at meeting over 100 suppliers and producers for the luxury hotel, which is scheduled to open before the end of this year.
They will be visiting many local producers, including Gubbeen Farmhouse Cheese in Schull, Glenilen Farm in Drimoleague, Toons Bridge Dairy near Macroom, Shellfish De La Mer in Castletownbere, Ummera Smoked Products in Timoleague and the English Market in Cork City. Over the course of nine days, they travelled to the four corners of Ireland to experience the many environments, which create the top-quality produce for which Ireland is famed, meeting farmers, fishermen and artisan food producers.
At each location they sampled the ingredients and cooked with them, which they hope to form the building blocks of future recipes for Adare Manor. The trip comes at a time when much planning is taking place for the whole culinary experience that will be available upon the reopening of Adare Manor in the fourth quarter of 2017.
The castle and resort has been undergoing a major refurbishment with extensive construction works over the past 12 months to enhance all areas of the property. In total there are over 670 employees working daily on the refurbishment and restoration of the castle, and on the expansion and redesign of the golf course. When the resort reopens it is expected to create over 350 jobs, for which Adare Manor is currently recruiting.
In anticipation of the reopening of the castle, Loughlin Druhan and his team were keen to meet as many producers and suppliers as they could while touring the country, aiming to find the highest-quality produce. Loughlin will be joined by some of his staff for the trip, including the Oak Room chef de cuisine Michael Tweedie, the Carriage House chef de cuisine Neils Van Oers, banqueting chef de cuisine David McKane and executive pastry chef Xavier Torne.