Accomplished cookbook author and former editor and publicist, Eveleen Coyle founded Fab Food Trails to impart insider knowledge of the best things happening food-wise in Ireland. Essentially journeys of culinary discovery, the walking trails involve a series of great food tastings and can now be found in Dublin, Cork and Kilkenny. We talked to Eveleen about the Fab Food Trail experience and how the idea was first mooted following a dinner in Australia eleven years ago.
What did you do before setting up Fab Food Trails?
I worked in book publishing, initially with Gill and Macmillan, and later on a freelance basis doing marketing for literary fiction. Then I began developing lifestyle lists, commissioning pieces about food and gardening. There was a lot of food involvement and I really enjoyed doing things that were a bit ahead of their time. I got Maureen Tatlow to do a book looking at the way we produced food here and what we were doing to it and when Darina Allen started doing Simply Delicious, I worked with her on publicity and promotion.
How did Fab Food Trails come about?
The seed of the idea began at the Adelaide Book Fair. I was at a long table dinner organized by Penguin, sitting beside the doyennes of Australian food, Stephanie Alexander and Maggie Beers. They were talking about what was happening in Australia, so I started talking about Ireland and cheese-making and what we had that other countries didn’t have. The next day somebody said to me, ‘I’ve been to Ireland about six times and I’ve never experienced the kind of food that you’re talking about. If it’s as good as you say it is you should be doing something about introducing people coming into the country to these places’.
I thought I wouldn’t know where to start, but eventually I decided, why not! So I finished commissioning books and started the business with my niece. Initially we brought people around the country introducing them to producers but it was hard to make that work financially. Then we got involved with cooking schools and organised Thai cooking days with Tao in Saba on a Sunday, and Japanese and Indian days as well. Eventually I decided to concentrate on the walks so they’re our main focus now.
What’s a typical Food Trail experience like?
We have a meeting point where we do a short introduction and ‘grass-hopper’ through the history of Irish food. It’s short and informative and each guide brings their unique persona to it. We tell people about each place and why we’re going there, somebody meets us when we arrive and there’s plenty of time to interact and ask questions. We do a bit about the history and the architecture, but it’s absolutely food-led. We don’t go down a street to look at a building or because something happened, we go because there’s some nice food there.
What influences the choice of places you include?
We like them! They’re lovely and the people are great. They’re doing what they do very well and they feel they can’t tell enough people about it. They’re fun too and that’s essential. We often go to places that have always been there, but may have been forgotten somehow, and the guides also suggest places they’ve discovered that might be nice to include. There’s a bit of walking, but there aren’t big distances between places and we make sure there are regular stops for tastings along the way.
Do you get many Dubliners on your tours?
The people we meet are amazing! We get a lot of locals and sometimes you think they’ll know everything, but often you’ll find that they pass these places every day and have never been in. We got a great call from a woman one day, who told us she wanted to go on a walk with her husband. She’d bought a voucher for her daughter’s 70th birthday and been given one back. This woman was about 94, sharp on every front and interested in everything. There were two lads in their late 20s on the walk that day, very into cooking and taking everything in. As we were making our way down Camden Street she turned around; ‘You two are dawdling the whole way, hurry up!’ And I thought, well I’m not in charge here! She’d grown up in the area, gone to school there and she knew everything. She was extraordinary; I’ll never forget her.
What have been the main challenges and successes so far?
When we started, there was nobody doing what we were doing and it was all a little bit trial and error. Once we got a pattern it was grand. Sometimes though, things can be going really well, and then you might get a day that’s not good enough for some reason and that’s the thing that can knock you sideways. Days when people are laughing because it was a bit of gas and everybody’s enthusiastic and you might have some story at the end of it, that’s a great day and that’s what you want it to be every time. We’ve loads of those!
You’re in Kilkenny, Cork and Dublin now. Have you plans to bring Fab Food Trails to other Irish cities or towns?
We’ve been asked to look at other places, but it takes a little bit more time in a new place to bed things down. Getting somebody local living there is very important and you think you’d get a route quickly, but it always takes a bit longer than it should. None of the tours are exactly the same. In Kilkenny we involve a little bit of craft because that’s such an integral part, in Dublin we also have a food and fashion trail, and Cork is different again. So we’re learning all the time and we’re always on the look out for new places and new people. It’s a lot of fun. I love it!
For further details check out www.fabfoodtrails.ie
Words: Martina Murray
Photo: Brigid Tiernan
