“The first Cornetto I ever had, I was about seven or eight. We got the ferry [to the UK], we were going to my uncle’s farm in Cornwall. "Mum drove across the Severn Bridge and the bridge was shaking, so she had to stop on the other side, as she was shaking.
She told us we could go in [to a nearby shop] and get a Cornetto. I remember that distinctly.” I am talking food nostalgia with chef Kevin Dundon.
He’s riffed on other sweet stalwarts of the 70s — trifle, Angel Delight and Jaffa Cakes, the last being the inspo for the Jaffa Cake Kiss, his dessert version of the orangey, chocolatey treat, which features regularly on the menu at Dunbrody Country House, the boutique hotel on Co Wexford’s picturesque Hook Peninsula that he owns and runs with his wife Catherine. “It triggers people’s memories of food and brings them back to their childhood,” Dundon says of his elevated take on the iconic mini cake. He’ll be whipping up another nostalgic classic, the pavlova, and demoing how to cook the perfect steak — “always a huge crowd-pleaser” — as part of his turn on the Savour Stage at Savour Kilkenny over the October bank holiday weekend.
Dundon is a firm fan of the Marble City’s food festival, now in its 16th year. “I’ve been doing it from the first year. It’s stayed very true to form.
All the food traders and stalls are proper artisan producers serving great Irish products. It’s great to come down and support them. I use as much local produce as po.