Erin Fien – Irish Studies

December 12, 2014December 12, 2014

Kevin Thornton

Kevin Thornton began his carrier not experimenting in the kitchen but working in a vegetable garden and helping at an abattoir. Now he is considered the top chef in Ireland, known not just for his delicious creations but for his food philosophies, advocacy and philanthropy.

Though he studied around the world Thornton’s philosophy towards food focuses on serving foods that are local and in season. He says unlike some chef who began searching out the freshest local foods as part of a resent trend, he as been foraging his who life. Thornton values the close relationships the farmers that supply to his restaurant, he goes foraging in the woods daily and he even dives for his own sea urchins

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December 2, 2014December 12, 2014

Rural Beef and Transformation

History of Irish Cattle Culture

For hundreds of years cattle have been extremely import in Ireland. In the middle ages and before cows were not only important as a source of food, meat and milk, but as currency and had significant economic and political influence. In this time the social and political importance of a person was evaluated based on how many cows their life was worth.² As the basic unit of wealth, cows were often used in most monetary interactions including fines, tribute and marriage presentations.¹ As might be expected cattle raids were extremely common but were not really considered crimes but rather demonstrations of social and political strength and become part of the folklore tradition. Tain bo Cuailnge, for example, is an epic tale of a queen traveling far and wide to find a prized cow to fight the kings prized cow and prove her superiority. However when the English began to assert there influence over the Irish they viewed this tradition of raiding as highly uncivilized and barbaric. English men like Edmund Spencer looked upon the Irish as a “degenerate race of cattle thieves and robbers,” and felt that they needed to put fences all around the Irish land scape to stop such savage behavior. Following plantation cows remained an important part of rural agriculture but were rarely a part of the poor farmers diet. Even in the years of the famine when many people were starving, cows were better left alive as a source of milk or export.

Modern Irish Cattle

Still today, though one can find organizations with great pride in Irish breads of cattle, such as the Irish Angus Society, very little Irish cattle is consumed in Ireland. A survey conducted in 2013 estimated that there are 6.6 million cattle in Ireland and that 110,000 of the the 139,000 farms in Ireland have some cattle. But even though beef makes up a significant portion of the agricultural economy cattle farmers earn very little and many hold supplementary jobs off the farm. In fact 92% of the beef produced in Ireland is exported. These statistic suggest that despite the historic cultural significance and the urban emphasis on “Irish Beef” there is little cultural influence in rural societies. Cows do not provide farmers with significant enough income and the large percent of exports suggest “Irish” beef is not exceedingly important to rural food culture.³

The Transition

In urban food establishment like Thornton’s there is a emphasis on Irish beef and its importance to the rural culture of Ireland, but a closer examination of cattle farming doesn’t entirely reflect that. In fact the urban cultures emphasis on beef seems to align more with a very historical notion of cattle significance than a modern one were most of the Irish beef is not actually consumed in Ireland. And though some of the breeds are unique to Ireland there is nothing particularly distinct about raising cows, its done all around the world. Urban food culture therefor must transform beef to make it even more distinctly Irish by feeding cows Guinness and letting them rest on peat. This transition illuminates a small example, of lingering nationalism and of urban Irishman’s slightly fantastic views of Ireland and their desire to remain tied to the land.

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1)McCormick, Finbar. The Decline of the Cow: Agricultural and Settlement Change in Early Medieval Ireland. 2008. https://www.qub.ac.uk/schools/gap/Staff/FileStore/Filetoupload,287072,en.pdf

2) Sherwood, Amy. An Bo Bheannaithe: Cattle Symbolism in Traditional Irish Folklore, Myth, and Archaeology. McNair Online Journal.

3) The Importance of Cattle and Sheep Sectors to the Irish Economy. Irish Farmers Association. 2013.

4) Jenkins, Raymond. “Spencer on Ireland.” The John Hopkins University Press. 2011. https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B-5-JeCa2Z7hZjQxZWM1YTktNGE4OC00NjY5LThkNmYtMWQ1Nzk2Y2U5YTk1/edit?hl=en

December 2, 2014December 12, 2014

Eireyu Beef

“I have a passion for the finest quality, in everything I do. That’s why I set out to create a unique Irish product to serve in my restaurant. And I’d like to share it with you, too.”

– Kevin Thornton

Eireyu beef is the name given to the beef that is proudly bred and raised specifically for Thorntons restaurant. This delicacy is a cross between the typical Irish Angus and Japanese Wagyu beef, praised in gourmet chefs around the world for its high degree of marbling.¹ The beef is described not only as a blending of the animals themselves but also of philosophies, combining purity and naturalness of Ireland with gentleness from Japan.

Renowned chef Kevin Thornton, owner of Thronton’s, incorporated these two philosophies to create something new and traditional at the same time. The cows are raised with Japanese gentleness but the details of the process are full of Irish pride. The cows “feast on the green pastures of Ireland’s unspoilt land,” and quite luxuriously rest on ancient peat to improve their coat. And as if that star treatment isn’t enough the Eireyu beef cattle are surprisingly fed one of “Ireland’s finest exports,” Guinness twice a day.

These happy cows are a modern manifestation of a cattle culture that’s been part of Irish history dating back to the medieval era when cows were of exceptional social and economic importance.² So beef itself has a tradition associated with it, even if its not a tradition that is exclusively Irish, however the process by which the cattle are raised incorporates other Irish traditions, in hopes of creating a food that is more exclusively Irish. The pride in green Irish pastures and the use of peat indicate a desire for the food to remain intimately connected with Irish land as both a source of energy and beauty. And feeding the beef Guinness suggests the importance the chef feels in cherishing traditional Irish products in addition to Irish land. Situating the beef specifically in Ireland is a gesture to the localvore movement and the desire to understand the origin of the food before you, which goes hand in hand with the desire to present some sort of local Irish traditionalism.

There is however, an interesting contrast between the strong and intentional Irishness of the process and the obvious cultural fusion in the breading and philosophy of the beef. In contract to the desire to stay connected with the land and tradition, crossbreeding with the Wagyu beef, a very distinctly Japanese animal, makes the Eireyu beef obviously less Irish and less local. The implication seems to be that while there is a desire to keep with tradition, in a high end urban restaurant for the Dublin nouveau riche tradition can’t stand on its own. In other words just because traditional Irish food is simple meat stew, that doesn’t mean it can’t be served to the more modern and worldly, who still desire to consume local food and culture, it just needs an update.