What’s happening in Cava Spanish Restaurant & Tapas Bar, Aniar Restaurant and Eat at Massimo this Easter weekend

Four days, over 60 events, more than 50 venues, one great festival

Cava Spanish Restaurant and Tapas Bar, Aniar Restaurant and Eat at Massimo will take part in the first Galway Food Festival - four days of fantastic food and related events - this Easter bank holiday weekend 6^th-9^th April 2012. The new festival, which is free to all, aims to celebrate Galway as a good food destination by showcasing the county’s rich array of food produce, producers and outlets. The event will focus on artisan, seasonal and local produce highlighting the excellent food that the Galway region has to offer. The festival will also include lots of what Galway does best – street performances, music and entertainment.

Wines Direct will host a Spanish wine tasting session on Saturday at 4pm in Cava Spanish restaurant and Tapas bar while restaurant owner JP McMahon will Jp will hold a cookery demo -‘Kids Time: Introduction to Spanish Food for Children’- on Sunday at 11am, later on Saturday at 3pm Jp will bridge culinary and academia worlds by hosting a free lecture entitled “Food in the History of Art’. Jp explains “the talk will explore the representation of food in European and American Art highlighting the ways in which food is used in painting both as a symbol and as a commodity. From being a religious icon to a luxurious item to a stable part of everyday life, the representation of food in the history of art promises to showcase a neglected aspect art history”. The lecture takes place Sunday at 3pm in the Galway Arts Centre.  History buffs will enjoy JP McMahon’s talk on Monday about the history of food trade between Galway and Spain.

Over in Aniar, award winning head chef Enda McEvoy will host a talk about the Traditional Preservation in the Modern kitchen, on Saturday at 12noon. Febvre wines will teach how to taste a glass of wine on Sunday at 2pm while later that evening Tomas Clancy, Irish Examiner and Peter Boland of Cases Wines will talk about how the Irish have influenced wine production around the world, ‘Ireland’s Wild Geese – Celtic Globalisation’. If beer is your preferred tipple then head to Eat at Massimo for an artisan food and beer tasting on Sunday.

The festival will be a real family affair offering food and events for all tastes.  With food talks and discussions about free range farming, the GM Debate and Grow It Yourself; wine workshops, pop-up restaurants, a food festival table quiz, cookery demos including ‘Cooking for Kids’, ‘Cooking the Perfect Steak’ and ‘Nose to Tail – Eating the Whole Hog’, food sampling and tastings it promises to be a fun, inspiring and delicious weekend in the city renowned for its fantastic festivals.

Jp McMahon of Cava, Aniar and Eat at Massimo restaurants and one of the Festival chairman said, “The festival aims to highlight Galway’s diverse food culture and the many ways in which this culture can enable people to eat better and make good food a permanent part of their lives. We hope that the festival will leave a permanent legacy of food education, good food provenance and a spirit of a greater culinary community.”

For more information including the festival programme log on to: www.galwayfoodfestival.com, find Galway Food Festival on Facebook or follow the event on Twitter.