Traveling Spoon

Forage in the Irish Woodlands and Cook with a Chef

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Aymar is a fun and energetic professional chef extremely passionate about food who is famous for his pesto! He believes in connecting with your ingredients before using them which is why a foraging experience with him (in season) is an experience to remember! He makes a delicious wild garlic pesto from wild garlic he forages himself. Aymar was born into a food-loving and foraging family that owned traditional French restaurants in Normandy. He grew up looking after the garden, picking wild berries and mushrooms from the forest, hunting, and caring for restaurant patrons. He then went to culinary school in Paris and moved to Ireland right after to study English. He bought a dictionary, learned 10 new words a day, and worked his way up at restaurants. He became the head chef at King Centric restaurant and eventually owned his own restaurant. His customers kept asking for a jar of his mushroom soup to take home and eventually Aymar started his own artisanal brand of food products called Le Skinny Chef that includes a variety of soups, pestos, chutneys and jams. His goal with his food is to bring depth of flavors from French cuisine using high-quality, local Irish ingredients, many of which he forages himself.

Aymar lives outside Dublin in Kildare County, an area famous for the Tullamore whiskey distillery, the Kildare Village shopping outlet, and Japanese gardens, which are all a 5-min drive from Aymar’s home. It is a great way to break your journey if driving from Dublin to the South of Ireland or to the Wild Atlantic Way.

What to expect:

Market Visit:

Meet your host Aymar at his production facility and get a tour of the spotless commercial kitchen where he makes his artisanal products. If you’re interested in learning to make your own pesto, this experience can be adapted so you can make your own pesto and take a jar home. Then drive 15 minutes before you begin your foraging adventure to the Irish countryside. Depending on the season, you might forage for wild mushrooms in the forest, fuchsia fruit (yes, it’s edible!) in the mountains, or wild garlic in the woodlands. Your foraging experience will last about an hour and a half. With a basket of hand picked ingredients, return to his car and drive another 15 minutes to his home for your cooking class.

Please note that this is a foraging tour, not a market tour. Depending on the weather, the order of your experience might change. For example, if it is raining in the morning you might have your cooking class and lunch first before you go foraging. Of course if this happens to be the case, Aymar will have a basket of foraged ingredients ready for you to use for your cooking class.

Cooking Experience:

Join chef Aymar at his family kitchen in Kildare County, halfway between Dublin and Limerick for a true gastronomic experience in his home using locally foraged ingredients. Learn to cook a French-Irish gourmet fusion meal from recipes that Aymar has created and perfected over the years. Your hands-on cooking class will last about an hour and a half during which you will learn to cook three dishes from scratch. Enjoy learning about the tips and techniques involved in fusion French-Irish cooking and presentation before you sit down at the table to share the meal you helped prepare with Aymar (his children might also be present for the experience when they are around). Your seasonal menu may include dishes such as nettle soup, wild garlic Caesar salad with smoked ham and roasted pears, a main of baked hake with his signature pesto, or local meat like local Kildare lamb roast in wild herbs, accompanied by foraged ingredients. Your meal will conclude with a seasonal wild berries or a seasonal dessert creation.

Aymar is happy to create a vegetarian or vegan meal so let him know your preference ahead of time.

Choose a starting time, either: or .

Note:

Aymar can accommodate a maximum of four people in his car for the foraging experience. If you are a larger group, you may follow him in your car.