• Blog

    My Path to Sweet Success

    French born master chocolatier Benoit Lorge was recently chosen by Kerry Local Enterprise Office to represent the county in this year’s National Enterprise Awards, adding yet another recognition to his impressive haul of accolades. Here, he tells Heike O’Sullivan about his ‘Path to Sweet Success’. ‘Growing up in Nancy, Lorraine, my grandmother Henriette was a huge inspiration to me. She was a traditional French cook with a great knowledge of food. When I was in my teens, a friend was training to be a pastry chef. I’ve always loved sweets and decided to go down the same route, knowing that, as a pastry chef, I could find work pretty much…

  • Blog

    People Power Averts Tunnel Vision

    Do you have an appointment coming up at Bantry Hospital, or do you currently visit there frequently to call on a loved one? Are you one of the many commuters or delivery van drivers on Bonane’s ‘Tunnel Road’, connecting Kenmare and Glengarriff? A Kerry farmer, heading to Bantry’s farm shops for cattle or sheep nuts, or bale wrap? Or perhaps a Cork farmer, taking livestock to Kenmare Mart? If so, then you will be delighted and relieved to know that thanks to local people power from both sides of the Cork/Kerry border, astonishingly short sighted decisions by Kerry and Cork County Councils to temporarily close the Tunnel at Turner’s Rock…

  • Blog

    Beyond Bonane: Buongiorno Buffalo!

    This is my first Blog Post venturing Beyond Bonane, but I hope you will enjoy it all the same! There are probably very, very few television-watching people in this country who haven’t seen Aldi’s genial and entertaining advert starring Johnny Lynch of Macroom Buffalo, Ireland’s first and only herd of milking water buffalo. Johnny went walking through his fields, followed by his buffalo. Astride his cow ‘Black Beauty’, Johnny greeted some random picknickers. Encountering Vespa-riding nuns at his farm gate, Johnny casually called out to them, ‘Ciao, ciao.’ I’m writing about Johnny, his family and Macroom Buffalo today because, as part of the 2018 “A Taste of West Cork Food…