Walking into Martcade in Rathmines, we’re greeted by a hallway of jam jars filled with tea lights. We pass through an open kitchen area, where Jette Virdi, food stylist and the key thinker behind The Creatives, is working behind a four hob gas oven to cook a meal for the 18 gathered guests at an intimate supper in aid of Marriage Equality. Her signature red bandana holds back her hair while she caramelises the blood oranges for the starter that will kick off our six-course meal for equality.
This is the latest in a series of Long Table Suppers hosted by The Creatives. ‘We’re a group of friends who work in various creative industries. We create events aimed to strengthen community ties,’ Verdi tells me. Every month, the group holds food and design workshops and every other month they host a Long Table Supper where all the profits go towards supporting a local project.
Virdi, who has styled for clients including Bash Magazine, Pearl and Godiva and Queens of Neon, certainly knows how to set a table. It’s a long one, layered with moss-tinged branches, gatherings of thawing candles, and bundles of fresh herbs. Wooden boards are passed around; they carry sourdough toast topped with Toonsbridge ricotta and skilfully singed blood oranges, while more boards offer up toast with red cabbage, crème fraîche and sage. A second round of our welcome drinks of pomegranate, gin and rosemary syrup are poured as tumblers of smooth cauliflower soup topped with salty ramp oil and capers are set before us by Verdi herself. Soup is followed by a course of grated celeriac and apple salad, which comes alive when Verdi’s homemade lemon salt is applied.
The gathered guests include a 29 year old who shared his plans to celebrate his 30th birthday by climbing Kilimanjaro, a trip he was to embark upon in the week following our dinner. ‘I just wanted to do something different,’ he says, making me feel a little less sure about spending my last birthday eating Coco Pops for all three meals. Another birthday girl is endearingly mortified by our rendition of Happy Birthday when her dessert of sweet, shortcrust pastry slice filled a tangy cream drizzled with anise honey and roasted rhubarb arrives with a candle on top of it. ‘It’s really amazing to see strangers who at the beginning of the night were a bit wary of talking to each other hug at the end of the night and create new friendships… all over food,’ says Verdi. ‘It’s what it’s all about.’
The conversation moves towards the vote around the time our we are served our plates of hake sprinkled with a light dusting of dehydrated sweet beets and surrounded by lentils, purple sprouting broccoli and other spring greens. We talk about the fear that underlies the Yes campaigning and goodwill towards it; that the No campaign’s supporters will be more vocal in their presence at the polling booths in May. Later, as we tuck into our shared boards of Cashel Blue, Milleens and Cooleeney cheeses, we talk about how the passage of the referendum is by no means a done deal and agree it’s imperative that we mobilise our friends and families to ensure they make their support count on Friday 22nd May.
A place at this BYOB dinner table was €65 per person, with all profits going to Marriage Equality.
Find out more about Jette Virdi, The Creatives and Long Table Suppers at www.jettevirdi.com. Find out about Marriage Equality at www.marriageequality.ie.
Words: Aoife McElwain
Photos: Mark Duggan
