Putting the Craic (and Calmer Evenings!) Back into the Kitchen I am beyond thrilled to share that I’m joining Sinéad Ryan on Newstalk’s The Home Show this evening after 5pm to chat all things back-to-school meal prep, cozy winter warmers, and the ultimate freezer hacks! To celebrate, I put my heart and soul into creating a master culinary guide: Home-Cooked & Living Well. It was such a joy to write because it hits directly at the heart of why so many of us fell in love with

Podcast Transcript: Irish Food Fraud & Irish Food Heroes (Part 1) Hosts: Tracie Daly (The Food Business Coach) Guest: Siobhán Ní Ghairbhith (Founder & Producer, St. Tola Goat’s Cheese) Link to listen to the podcast: https://open.spotify.com/episode/7oQhdtZEcGt7uXOsqzIPE7?si=amxXhT2MQgyHfLydPcSQAQ&utm_source=copy-link The Queen- Siobhan of St.Tola Tracie Daly: And lift off! It gives me immense pleasure to be on this podcast, which I have named Irish Food Fraud and Irish Food H

"Sometimes you just need a really good chocolate chip cookie. I had a hankering for something rich, chewy, and topped with a sprinkle of sea salt, so I gave these a whirl and they hit the spot nicely. Brown butter and a mix of three chocolates make these an absolute game-changer. I hope you enjoy them and they hit that sweet and salty spot for you too. Happy Baking, Love, Tracie at home xxx” Ingredients 170g butter 200g light brown sugar 50g granulated sugar (1 only had caste

At 6:00 AM, Sean—a third-generation dairy farmer in Co. Tipperary— is out in the cold rain. His back aches and his margins are razor-thin, but he keeps going. His family’s name is stamped on the wax of every wheel of artisan cheese he crafts. It’s his heritage, his soil, and his livelihood. At 3:00 PM, a delivery truck pulls up to an upmarket city restaurant. Out comes one single, beautiful wheel of Sean’s Tipperary Farmhouse Cheese. Beside it sits a massive, plastic-wrapped

Let’s be honest about the landscape facing Irish food and hospitality right now: it’s tough out there. With tourism numbers and visitor spend down across Ireland, combined with soaring operational costs, footfall isn't what it used to be. On top of that, major supermarket chains continue to aggressive-price, expand their own-label ranges, and squeeze independent producers, cafés, and artisan retailers off the shelves. When the market contracts and big retailers swallow up cus

Let’s talk about the elephant in the Irish hospitality room. Every few weeks, a post goes viral online. Someone does the math on a bag of specialty coffee beans, divides it by the grams in a double shot, adds a splash of milk, and triumphantly declares: "A coffee at home only costs me 56 cents! Why am I paying €4.50 in a cafe? Independent owners are absolutely cleaning up!" As a food business coach, when I see these posts, my heart sinks. Not just because the math is wildly o

Irish fuel protests, blockades and a deepening cost‑of‑living crisis are colliding to create a perfect storm for Irish food businesses. This is not just about traffic jams and queues at petrol stations or blockades, it is about every link in our food chain being stretched close to breaking point. A spider web under strain To understand what is happening, picture the Irish food economy as a spider web. At the centre sits **Irish food business viability** – the ability of cafés

Last week I had a conversation with Darina Allen that really shook me. She told me the practical cookery is being downgraded dramatically from Leaving Certificate Home Economics. Not changed. Not updated. Slowly removed. If you think teenagers should leave school able to cook real food, this matters. When schools don't teach kids to cook We already see the effects of weak cookery education. When people can’t cook, they turn to: ready meals takeaways cheap, ultra‑processed fo

In the final part of this series, we’re going down the rabbit hole of foods and drinks that don’t look “fancy” at first glance – but carry just as much place and pride as any Blaa or hill lamb. Think: black pudding, brown pudding, sea salt, and a spirit that used to be illegal in Ireland and now has official geographical protection. Breakfast with a postcode: Sneem & Timoleague Ireland loves its puddings – but Sneem Black Pudding and Timoleague Brown Pudding are in a differ

If Part 1 was about flour on the counter and bakers at 4am, Part 2 is about wind that never quite stops blowing and animals that graze their way into EU law. This time, the PGI spotlight swings to Connemara Hill Lamb and Irish Grass-Fed Beef – proof that you can taste not just the animal, but the landscape it came from. Connemara: where the hills season the meat Picture Connemara: stone walls, scrubby grass, heather, bog, Atlantic weather rolling in sideways. This is not ge

You walk into a café in Waterford, order a bacon roll, and discover that your breakfast has a legal team in Brussels. Yes, really. The woman behind the counter smiles, slides a floury white roll onto the plate, and your brain does that tiny double take it only saves for very specific moments: This is… different. The outside is soft and pale, dusted in flour like it’s been hugged by a miller. The inside is pillowy and chewy, built to soak up butter, bacon fat and whatever kin

“We’ve Always Done It That Way” Every time I hear it, I know I’m looking at a business in trouble. It’s said with pride sometimes, with gritted teeth sometimes, nostalgia other times, but the effect is always the same: it stops progress dead in its tracks. That phrase closes doors to possibility. It kills innovation. It blocks agility. And most dangerously, it convinces you that comfort equals stability—when it flipping doesn’t. Business in Ireland hasn’t just “gotten a bit t