skip to main content

RACHEL’S COASTAL COOKING

Rachel's Coastal Cooking Image Name: Rachel's Coastal Cooking Description: Rachel Allen - Rachel's Coastal Cooking
Rachel Allen 4 Image Name: Rachel Allen 4 Description: Rachel's Coastal Cooking - Rachel Allen
Rachel Allen Image Name: Rachel Allen Description: Rachel's Coastal Cooking - Rachel Allen
Rachel's Coastal Cooking - FingalFerguson Image Name: Rachel's Coastal Cooking - FingalFerguson Description: Rachel's Coastal Cooking - Fingal Ferguson fashioning a new chef's knife for Rachel. Copyright: Pic: Rob Partis

Episode Three of Twelve – RTÉ One, Wednesday, October 7, 2015 at 7.30pm

Rachel Allen visits her old friend Fingal Ferguson at Gubbeen Farm in Schull. Fingal is a renowned charcutiere, but he is also a highly skilled knife maker. Sparks fly as Rachel joins Fingal in his workshop where he creates an essential tool for every good cook – the chef’s knife.

Armed with her new knife and some of Fingal’s award-winning chorizo, Rachel borrows Fingal’s outdoor woodburning stove to create a dish of roast cod with white bean and chorizo mash.

She then journeys to the Beara Peninsula and goes deep underground at Allihies, where Tadg Sullivan and Martin Meahan show her around the old copper mine. There are plans to open the mine to the public in the future, but Rachel gets a sneak preview of the stunning caverns and green lakes.

Rachel sets up an al fresco kitchen outside the copper mine museum to make a warming beef cheek stew.

Then her walk along the Beara Way takes her to the famous Hag of Beara. And local school principal Ann McNally shares some of the myths with her as they look out to sea, like the legendary goddess herself.

Series Overview 

Ireland’s gourmet goddess Rachel Allen is back with a new show that sees her travel along the southern and western coast in search of the best local produce.

In this new series Rachel takes to the road visiting the south and west coasts, hunting down the very best of the abundant local produce; foraging and, at times, battling wind and rain. Rachel cooks as she goes, for her crew and participants, usually outside in the elements and subject to the vagaries of the Irish weather. Taken away from the relative comforts of the kitchen, Rachel’s Coastal Cooking plays to her natural curiosity and sense of fun while showcasing some of the best of Ireland’s produce and the people behind it.

This food and travelogue series marks a real departure for Rachel, as she challenges herself to explore landscape, culture, social and culinary history in a way she has never tried before. The series also sees Rachel immersed in local communities, meeting incredible characters and exploring a mix of traditional and contemporary approaches to food production, from a state of the art Abalone farm to foraging for Woodruff in ancient woodland.