Irish heritage blooms in City by the Sea

During the month of March, thoughts turn to the Emerald Isle, especially in Newport. For the past 11 years the City by the Sea has hosted a celebration of Irish traditions, including its vibrant and flavorful food.
The port town of Kinsale, Newport’s sister city, is known as the gourmet capital of Ireland. The two cities were drawn together by the similarity of their locations. Kinsale is located on the south coast of Ireland in County Cork, southeast of Killarney. The two cities share other attractions such as sailing and strong Irish-American links have remained over the years, forged by the interest of many Newport residents in the land of their ancestors.
But food continues to be at the forefront.
The annual Kinsale Festival of Fine Food is held in Newport each spring. The culinary expertise of Newport’s sister city, as well as local chefs, are in the spotlight. The chefs prepare specialized, Irish-inspired menus. The fare they serve up is tasty and creative. Then in the fall, there is a corresponding event in Kinsale, as the chefs exchange roles with their American counterparts.
Over the years a group of chefs has traveled back and forth between Kinsale and Newport to put on cooking demonstrations at each other’s restaurants. Some have become as familiar around the City by the Sea as they are in their own hometown. Executive Chef Frank O’Reilly of Pier One restaurant in the Trident Hotel Kinsale is so well-known that for this year’s exchange around St. Patrick’s Day, he literally mailed it in. His schedule did not allow him to travel to Newport so he created his menu in Kinsale and put its preparation into the hands of Chef David Rutkowski of The Windward Restaurant at the Hyatt Regency Newport. Rutkowski will be preparing O’Reilly’s roast monkfish fillet with smoked bacon lardoons and basil pesto, a tart filled with spinach and goats cheese from Ardsallagh, a farming community just up the coast from Kinsale, a seafood terrine and a marquise-a gourmet torte made with butter and coffee, dark chocolate and Bailey’s.
Another Kinsale personality who has become well-known in Newport is Derek Davis, who is a food-show host on Irish TV and radio. He also furnished a menu for the festival to be prepared by Chef Eric Steinhauer of Fathoms at the Newport Marriott featuring grilled filet of beef wrapped in smoked pepper bacon and seafood stew served with colcannon (mashed potatoes mixed with chopped cabbage), baby carrots and haricots verts. Thanks to the popularity of TV cooking shows such as Iron Chef on both sides of the pond, the chef visits have recently taken on a more competitive nature. Yet the familial aspect of each of the sibling cities’ delegations continues to come to the forefront.
On a blustery March afternoon, an inaugural International Cook-Off was held at the Marriott on America’s Cup Avenue. The cook-off was to test the culinary expertise of Rutkowski as he took on challenger Chef Christine O’Sullivan from Kinsale. O’Sullivan recently was a contestant on the Irish television version of the reality series “Master Chef.”
In the “Battle of Newport,” each chef had to create a course around each of four main ingredients. The two would each cook with local mussels and littlenecks, Nantucket scallops and duck breast. O’Sullivan showed a polished stage presence from her stint on reality TV as she created flavorful dishes with the main ingredients as the star.
Rutkowski, who relocated to Newport from San Diego last year, was West Coast cool with a variety of approaches and seasonings, from Thai to Portuguese. He even got scientific with a soy lecithin foam in the littleneck course to simulate sea foam.
By a narrow margin, O’Sullivan won the coveted green-spoon award. But there is more to the story.
The festival tradition had started as an end-of-season thank you from Kinsale’s restaurateurs and hoteliers to their staffs. The idea of partnering with a twin city had been proposed by one of the Irish restaurateurs who came to Newport to meet with his counterpart, the late Paul Crowley, who owned La Forge Casino. The restaurateur was Christy O’Sullivan, Christine’s father, who brought along his young daughter. In the early years of the festival, Christine stayed and spent summers working in the Visitors’ Center downtown.
Inspired by Newport’s chefs, she decided against studying architecture as she had planned and became a chef.
She charmed diners on both sides of the Atlantic, as well as the restaurateur who hosted that reality show. He hired her to work in his restaurant in Dublin. If you visit, plan to dine at the Rustic Stone. You will undoubtedly find a touch of Newport hospitality. &#8226


Bruce Newbury’s food and wine talk radio show is heard Saturdays and Sundays locally on WPRV-AM 790, on radio throughout New England and on the Stitcher mobile application. He can be reached at Bruce@BruceNewbury.com.

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