Greystones Foodies Make Top 50 List

Audrey Cahatol. Pic: Naoise Culhane

iven Greystones status as a foodie town, it’s no real surprise to see two locals on The Irish Times latest culinary Top 50.

Released today, their 50 Heroines Of The Irish Food And Drink Scene boasts not only chef Audrey Cahatol but teacher Deirdre Doyle.

In January, Cahatol also made The Irish Times 50 People To Watch In 2022. So the lady is clearly doing something very right…

This is what the paper’s Corinna Hardgrave had to say about Audrey…

A particularly light dessert at my recent dinner in Library St in Dublin had me wondering, whose idea it was to add a slightly textural note. It was an espuma of sheep’s milk and Velvet Cloud yoghurt with clementines and a refreshingly zesty clementine sorbet, but the slight bite of the ground mix of dehydrated zest and sugar was what made the dish so individual and special. The chef behind this inspired embellishment is 24-year-old Audrey Cahatol, who came to Ireland from the Philippines when she was 10. She studied at DIT, worked as a chef in The Pig’s Ear and Forest & Marcy, and front of house at the Grapevine in Dalkey, before joining the opening team at Kevin Burke’s exciting new restaurant and wine bar. Burke is the sort of mentor you want if you’ve got talent, so it is going to be very interesting to watch Cahatol progress and develop what seems to be a very intuitive style.

And this is what Marie-Claire Digby had to say about Deirdre…

Teaching children about food through fun and interactive workshops is at the heart of what Deirdre Doyle and her team at the Cool Food School do. Their workshops in schools and pre-schools have helped thousands of children to learn more about healthy eating and how to make positive choices around food. The focus is on vegetables and fruit, and Doyle encourages participants to touch, taste and prepare things that they might otherwise avoid. She recently launched an online course, Food Fun for Pre-Schoolers, aimed at three- to five-year-olds, and her cookbook for children will be published by O’Brien Press in May.

Ooh, a book in May? The fecker never told us.

Congrats to both Audrey and Deirdre. You can check out the full top 50 list of food heroines right here.