New Beár Bia Podcast celebrates Irish food and drink
Ballyhubbock Farm’s halloumi cheese alongside a cocktail made with Wicklow Way Wines and Fercullen Falls whiskey
The Beár Bia podcast has been released with the support of Bord Bia. The first season will feature 12 episodes and will be broadcast fortnightly.
Its creators, Dee Laffan and Oisín Davis, aim to highlight all the amazing food & drink producers in Ireland and to celebrate them in unison with each other.
Each episode of the podcast will have a different focus – whether it be pairings from a particular county, from an event, a bar or restaurant, a specific ingredient or cooking method, or themed around a food or drink brand.
The Beár Bia podcast invites Irish food & drink producers for a round-the-table, tastings, and discussion. For example; brewers chatting with cheese makers and distillers hanging out with chefs.
All of it will be recorded, filmed & photographed for the podcast.
Beár Bia’s first episode focuses on the garden county as they paired two different Wicklow drinks with two different Wicklow foods. They picked up some Ridgeway wagyu beef, which was cooked and served by Barry Walllace of Dash Burger, and paired it with Wicklow Wolf Brewery’s Solstice, Tropical Sour.
The other pairing featured Ballyhubbock Farm’s sheep’s milk halloumi cheese alongside a cocktail made with raspberry wine from Wicklow Way Wines and Powerscourt Distillery’s Fercullen Falls whiskey.
About the hosts
Dee Laffan is a food journalist and editor with more than 15 years of experience. Currently, she is writing for TheTaste.ie, Irish Country Living in the Farmers Journal, and Irish Country Magazine. Laffan is also the co-founder and editor of Scoop: Irish Food Stories, an annual Irish food magazine, which is published by Nine Bean Rows Books.
Laffan is a broadcaster and was co-host of the Spice Bags Podcast from 2020-2023 when it finished. The podcast won Best Food Podcast twice in the Irish Food Writing Awards in 2021 and 2023.
Laffan describes herself as a professional eater, and when she’s not doing that you’ll find her on stage at festivals and events across the country, talking about food. She’s a proud Irish Food Writers’ Guild member and a Blas na hÉireann judge (Irish Food Awards). Her favourite tipple is Champagne and rhubarb is her all-time favourite ingredient.
Oisín Davis is an award winning cocktail creator, spirits columnist and best selling author of his debut book,”Irish Kitchen Cocktails.” Through his company Great Irish Beverages, he has run nationwide drinks festivals, worked all around the world educating and marketing for Irish whiskey and manages publicity for some of Ireland’s most prestigious spirit brands.
Davis has a monthly award winning spirits column in Food & Wine Magazine, is a regular speaker at international bar and spirits shows and previously wrote a food column in The Irish Times for five years.
For more info please email oisin@greatirishbeverages.com or deelaffan@gmail.com
