The eighth Food On The Edge will take place on the 16th and 17th of
October 2023 in Airfield Estate Dundrum, Dublin.
Returning for its eighth year the award-winning Food On The Edge officially launched the 2023 season on Monday, May 29th. The theme of this year’s event is Storytelling.
Jp McMahon, Founder of Food On The Edge, said: “Food On The Edge has evolved into a place where the global food industry can come together and share thoughts, ideas, stories and have an honest discussion about where the food industry is and where it needs to go, speakers are free from external pressures and expectations”.
The storytelling theme for 2023 was born from the natural space Food On The Edge creates for chefs and producers to tell their stories. JP McMahon explains ”Storytelling is a social and cultural act whereby people or a nation talk to themselves about themselves. Stories preserve traditions and teach us about past generations. Food must have a story – though that doesn’t mean that the story has to replace the taste. The Irish people are historically masters when it comes to storytelling. Growing up, I didn’t particularly feel that we had a food story. We seemed to have stories about everything except food. We were giants of telling stories while drinking a feast of pints, but never a feast of food! Of course, this has changed, but we still have a way to go to cement the possibilities of the Irish food story into our cultural nexus. Perhaps we had fewer food stories because we couldn’t materialise them in light of the Famine”.
Food On The Edge is a coming together of international and national chefs and food influencers to listen, talk and debate about the future of food in our industry and on our planet. Previous speakers have included Elena Arzak, Albert Adrià, Alex Atala, Massimo Bottura, Ana Rôs, Magnus Nilsson and many more visionary, change-promoting agents.
A 2023 headline speaker will be Elena Reygadas who was recently named World’s Best Female Chef by The World’s 50 Best Restaurant 2023 Awards. Reygadas divides her time between the kitchens of her five restaurants in Mexico City, ranging from the refined Rosetta to several casual concepts much loved by local diners, Lardo, Café Nin and Bella Aurora, as well as a bakery that has achieved the iconic status of its own, La Panadería de Rosetta. Basing her menus on nature’s timelines, each week provides new produce to play with. Having studied at the French Culinary Institute in New York and then working for four years at one of London’s top restaurants, Reygadas knows how tough it is to succeed in the culinary world and now champions Mexican food with a noticeable Mediterranean influence.
Another newcomer to Food On The Edge this year, and equally as culinarily groundbreaking, is Fatmata Binta was born and raised in Freetown, Sierra Leone, to first-generation Sierra Leonean Fulanis of Guinean descent, Binta describes herself as a modern nomadic chef. She was recently awarded the Basque Culinary Prize for exploring West African cuisine’s diaspora through her innovative ‘Dine on a Mat’ experience and setting up the Fulani Kitchen Foundation for women and girls.
Returning to Food On The Edge is Andoni Luis Aduriz, recently awarded Icon Award 2023 by The World’s 50 Best Restaurant 2023 Awards, known to be a rebel in the kitchen due to his focus on culinary evolution and an interdisciplinary approach. His two Michelin-star restaurant Mugaritz closes for six months every year to allow the team to research and develop a new menu from scratch while allowing a constantly evolving restaurant experience. After twenty years of Mugartiz, Aduriz has decided to expand with a new venue focusing on a fusion of Mexican and Basque country cuisine, Topa Sukaderia opened in 2017 in San Sebastian with a more easy-going cuisine compared to Mugaritz.
Closer to home, couples in business and in life, who have based themselves in Ireland will talk about their journeys. Jordan Bailey and Majken Bech-Bailey and Shauna and Mark Froydenlund are couples who are forging new paths, each will tell their story of working together while navigating new horizons as a team.
Food On The Edge 2022 Early Bird tickets are on sale now for €275, which includes two-day access to all speaker talks, lunches, evening entertainment and a ticket to the wrap party. Tickets can be purchased via www.foodontheedge.ie Closing date for Early Bird 2-day tickets is July 16th 2023 More details of the event this year will be announced in the coming months.
Key partners and sponsors of Food On The Edge 2023 are Gather & Gather, La Rousse Foods, S.Pellegrino, Airfield Estate, Failte Ireland, Bord Bia, and Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council.
Follow @FoodOnTheEdge on social media to be the first to know. For more information see www.foodontheedge.ie.
