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Just in case you missed the last Irish Examiner Weekend – which you didn't, of course – we thought we might bring to your attention Darina Allen's generous comments about Bernadette O'Shea's Pizza Defined:

“There isn't a better book on pizza cookery, or if there is I certainly don't know of it... Her free spirit and unique creativity live on in this delicious little book... It feels every bit as fresh and exciting today as it did when it was originally published”.

Pizza Defined is in all good shops, and also available via this site

Congratulations to Caroline Rigney, of Limerick's splendiferous Curraghchase pork company, who has won gold medals at the Great Taste Awards in the U.K. for her sausages, white pudding and streaky rashers. We judged at these awards several years ago, and they are rigorous and pukka, so these medals carry clout, Mind you, it doesn't surprise us one iota that Mrs Rigney should have collected so many gongs: her pork products are superlative, so make a trip to the farm shop and get your hands on some of the best bangers, rashers and puddings that you will find in these islands.

Valerie O'Connor has a high old time in County Clare.

Ballinlacken Castle was where Frank and Marian Sheedy last worked together in the hospitality business before opening Roadford House two years ago. Marian is gracefully front of the tastefully red painted house while chef Frank works his magic in the kitchen.

The images were shocking, depressing, post-apocalyptic.
A desecrated landscape; enough food litter and packaging detritus to fill a week of WALL-E’s clean-up time; still-smouldering fires; abandoned habitats.
Apocalypse Now? No, just the remains of Oxegen 2008, a world of deserted and abandoned Gelerts, San Marinos, Topazs, Akashis and Iglus.
The snail may travel with his house on his back, but Oxegen festivalgoers can’t be bothered to pack up their pricey tents and bring them back home for another day, another weekend.

Most Western cooking, linguistically speaking, takes place in English, even though its antecedents are in the romance languages – French and Italian.
But English is pervasive, expected, understood, elementary – the lingua franca of contemporary cooking, the discourse of cookery books and food writing, the framework for cooking and eating, the way in which we understand the process.

Whenever we give a talk to people in the food business, the first thing we try to explain is The Blink Moment.
What is TBM? It's the 2-3 seconds you have in which to capture, calm and control the customer who has just walked into your restaurant, hotel, shop, whatever.
Screw up TBM, and you will have a difficult customer. Get it right, and the customer eats out of the palm of your hand.

We have already flagged the production of Tom Crean, Antarctic Explorer, at the Theatre by the Lake in Gougane Barra, but having seen it last night with the family, we have to assert that if there is any way to get a seat for Aidan Dooley's amazing performance, then you should do whatever is required to get your hard little seat in this simple little theatre.
Mr Dooley got the standing ovation last night, and after almost 500 performances he is surely well used to it, but there was a freshness and zealour about his playing that was riveting.

A note from Dianne Curtin of Slow Food West Cork. Take it away Dianne...

Okay, so August beckons, and you have rented a nice little house somewhere, and said to your friends, “Sure, if you are in the area why not drop in...” and, so far, 967 of them have promised to do just that. Firm promises.
So, if you have to give them all a drink or three, then you are going to be Bear Stearns. What to do?

Being a Bridgestone editor is a bit like playing in a Miles Davis quintet: no rehearsals, plucked from the bench, get out there and be confident right from the start, here we go right now...
Anyhow, that's how Caroline Byrne of the Bridgestone Dublin parish got her start, filing expert reports straight away after an innocent e-mail enquiry, being despatched all around the city to say who and what is Bridgestone quality, and so it was nice to finally meet her in person in The Winding Stair this week.