Ice Cream Ireland

 I’m delighted to announce that our cookbook, The Book of Sweet Things, has won the Gourmand World Cookbook Award for best Irish dessert cookbook!

The book was garnered mostly from this blog, so thanks again to everyone for your help, comments and feedback!

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 While Amazon keep frustrating us by listing our book as “out of stock,” I’ve just been told that Eason’s is offering 10% off, when you buy it on-line (here)… You can also pick order it from Mercier or Hugh’s and Hugh’s (or support your local bookshop and buy it locally (in Ireland).

If anyone has any ideas of how to convince Amazon to stock a book, I’d love to hear it…

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 I’m delighted to say that our new ice cream cookbook, The Book of Sweet Things, is now available on amazon.co.uk for your ordering pleasure (here). Of course, it’s also available in Irish bookshops both North and South. It doesn’t seem to be on amazon.com yet, so people further afield will have to order from the publishers for the moment…

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 I’m feeling very tired, and very happy! Last night we launched the Book of Sweet Things a second time in our Dingle shop, and it was a great night. I don’t think the shop has ever been so full, and the party had to spill out onto the street.

Thanks so much to all our friends who came along (some old, some new), thanks to Mary and Eoin from Mercier Press, who drove up from Cork, to Tom Sheahan, T.D., to councillors Seamus Fitzgerald and Breandan MacGearailt, to Manuela Dei Grandi for the photographs, and again thanks to all our staff who made the night possible.

Now I need a cure for drinking too much champagne…

Technorati tags: cookbook, Book of Sweet Things, launch, ice cream, Dingle

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 Well, folks, the Book of Sweet Things is officially launched! We had the first of our two launch parties in the Killarney shop last night (the second will be in Dingle tonight). 

It’s quite exciting to finally have it in our hands and I’m happy enough with the quality of the printing and presentation, and everyone who came along seemed quite happy as well. Michael Healy-Rae (above), the mayor of Kerry, was on hand to wish us well (and eat an ice cream).

We’re delighted that Adi Roche, founder of the Chernobyl Children’s Project (photo right with my father) came up from Cork as well. We’re donating profits from both launches to her very worthy cause. 

Anyway, onward to Dingle now, and another party tonight…

Thanks to our whole team, especially to Niamh, JP, Christophe, and the whole team in Killarney, who made the party possible and did all the work…

(Photos courtesy of Manuela Dei Grandi)

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We’ve started receiving some of the goodies for the book launch next week, not least of which were some cases of Champagne.

Actually, it’s sparkling wine, since it’s not from Champagne at all, but rather from Alsace. We chose this Meyer Brut because it’s not only organic but biodynamic, and it comes recommended by Julian.

This is the second biodynamic sparkling wine I will have tasted. The first (Fleury) also came from Bubble Brothers in Cork, and we used to it make pink champagne sobet.

The latest bottles will not be made into ice cream unless we fail to drink them all down, and that would seem unlikely…

In any case, come along if you can and lift a glass with us on the night (Wednesday 30th in Killarney, and Thursday 1st May in Dingle)!

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We’re getting close to publication now, and we’ve set the following launch dates for our up-coming cookbook:

• Dingle: 1 May 2008, 8:00pm, at Murphys Ice Cream, Strand Street
• Killarney: 30 April 2008, 7:30pm, at Murphys Ice Cream, Main Street *

We’ll try to make it a special event, and I promise there will be ice cream involved!

I think we’ll do both evenings as benefits for a good cause – we’re thinking Chernobyl Children’s Project.

I’m delighted that our Dingle launch will be part of the Feile na Bealtaine festivities, and anyone thinking of coming to Dingle would do well to arrive for that festival. Feile na Bealtaine is quite local in feel, international in aspiration, always interesting, and quite often inspiring.

In any case, we’d delighted if you could join us in either place!

* To be confirmed…

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I’ve received the first sample spreads for our book from Mercier Press, and it’s beginning to feel real! We’ve even made it onto the “Authors” page of their website. With a bit of luck, books should be in all the shops in Ireland by the end of April and available on-line as well…

I’m off to Dublin, with my wellies in the bag!

Technorati tags: cookbook, ice cream, Irish, publishing

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