Food for Life: Kevin Thornton's Weblog

Image Now canape Bar

Thank you to Emily Hourican 

Hot Press Article : What would I do if I was Minister for Food

photograph Barbara Corsico

photohraph Paul Sherwood 

 

photograph Kip Caroll 

Thank you to all at Hot Press 

From Dublin to Antarctica

  

Video by Kevin Thornton and Darrel  Kavanagh 

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Letter From Trever White # Leave our kids alone

 Brilliant letter from Trever 

Dear Friends

I'm writing to let you know a bit more about my number one daft idea
this season. You may have heard me pontificating on the subject
already.

'Leave Our Kids Alone' is a global campaign to ban children's
advertising. Using the same slick visual vocabulary of the modern
adman. And funnier lines (Abie!).

Enclosed in confidence are some reflections on the subject, by way of
background... Let me know if you'd like to lend your name, thoughts,
help or complaints to the project.

TW


There are 300 girls called Armani in the United States. McDonalds is
the largest private operator of playgrounds in Australia. And alcohol
companies have colonized sports fields throughout the developed world.
None of this is surprising to anyone who knows how marketing works.
First we get your kids’ attention. Then we sell you stuff they don’t
need.

The under-16 market in the UK alone is now worth £30 billion a year.
The credulity of children is routinely exploited by companies with the
ethics of a playground bully. Marketing messages shape the way kids
see themselves and the world: how they learn, what they eat and how
they play. Values, aspirations, health and self-esteem are all
undermined by cynical pleas to the immature mind. The immediate
effects include emotional problems, eating disorders and behavioural
issues. Apparently it’s what happens when you try to create a race of
human sheep.

We have become numb to the cynicism of such marketing. It is so deeply
ingrained in our culture that we rarely stop to unpack capitalism at
its creepiest. Advertising is a powerful tool, potentially
transformative, but there is something essentially deviant about most
commercial propaganda. Only if you buy this car today will your life
be complete. Let me give you diabetes. Are you sure you don’t want
another drink?

Advertising is a symptom as well as a cause. Our consumerist culture
is predicated on the idea that winners get all the latest products.
You hear people talking about built-in obsolescence and you know
they’re referring to a telephone. But the flipside of consumerism is
that if you can’t afford that new iphone, you’re just not worth it.

Mammon offends common sense as expressed in every major faith and
none. It is not simply that the man who knows he has enough is rich.
It is that people who spend their whole lives trying to buy more stuff
are bound to be utterly miserable. Money can buy happiness to a
certain point, but there is little, if any, psychological benefit to a
very high income. (A far better indicator of happiness is how you fare
in relation to your neighbours.) Yet our culture privileges wealth at
every turn. Never mind the delusions of Donald Trump or the
self-styled grandeur of Wall Street. Life is the preparation of a
delicate soul for the polite refusal of a loan. The indignity of being
turned away for being too poor.

It is a truism that children grow up fast these days, but we rarely
stop to explore what that means. One study found that half of English
four year olds did not know their own name, but 69% of three-year-olds
could identify the McDonalds golden arches. The lack of a level
playing field makes efforts to stop the rot improbable. Every pound
that the British government spends on promoting healthy eating is
matched by ninety nine pounds in advertising for the top ten food and
drink brands.

Many millions of people now recognize the pernicious effect of
marketing on children. They have natural allies in the family,
churches, charities and schools. The Lancet medical journal has called
for a worldwide ban on the advertising of food during children’s
television programming. In California cigarette companies are obliged
to subsidise the production and publication of anti-smoking ads. It is
agreed that the enemy is well armed, but truth is also a powerful
weapon, and politicians are beginning to recognise that teaching
people how to over-consume may not be the smartest thing to do right
now.

If we are witnessing the birth of a global anti-consumerism movement,
let us admit that the Scandinavians got there first… as usual. In
1991, Sweden legislated to restrict advertising to children. There are
no advertisements aimed at children under 12 at any time, and anyone
who appears in a programme for children may not appear in any
advertisement. It’s as if the Swedes asked themselves a simple
question: what are the circumstances in which it’s okay for a stranger
to manipulate our children? One day the answer to that question will
be heard around the world.

Leave our kids alone.

Cashel Blue Cheese New Season Walnuts

 

# cashel # blue cheese # fresh # Walnuts  © Kevin Thornton# Thornton's # Restaurant  

# woodland  #Herbs  for the # Chefs table © Kevin Thornton # thornton's # restaurant 

 #  My Macaroons  # Blueberry © Kevin Thornton © Thornton's # Restaurant © Kevin Thornton 

carpaccio of Sikka Deer,szechuan pepper, heather, squid ink, spring broccoli

#Caroaccio of # sikka # ∂eer © kevin Thornton 

Ireland’s general welcome for EU moves to ban fish discards

Ireland’s general welcome for EU moves to ban fish discards is only partially shared in the south of the country.

Tom Hassett, of Cork-based lobby group FishingForJustice.eu, welcomes the progress made on discards by Fisheries Minister Simon Coveney in Brussels last week. However, he says it will do little for fishermen unless Ireland is given “a fair share of the whitefish quota”. 

The Irish fleet has quota to catch 1,727 tonnes of cod annually, versus 13,977 tonnes for France, 15,396 tonnes for Spain and 15,396 tonnes for the UK. Similar tenfold contrasts exist for haddock, whiting, megrim and monk, with a twentyfold gap for hake. 

Unrelated to each state’s home population base, Ireland’s quota gap was first imposed in the 1980s because much of the Irish fleet comprised inefficient outdated 15m-long trawlers. 

Irish Marine Institute figures show non-Irish vessels take 88% of all fish caught in Irish waters. Ireland still only has about 4% of the EU’s whitefish quota, even though the days of the 35-year-old wooden boats are long gone. 

Under a mechanism known as the Hague Preferences, Ireland periodically regains some of its whitefish catch, but the numbers are too small to do much for the southern fleet. Fishermen in the north-west, who have about 87% of the overall Irish quota, are more focused on the pelagic catch. 

“In the 1980s, we were told that when the fleet improved, our quota would increase. That never happened,” said Tom Hassett, who is also secretary of the Irish South & West Fish Producers Organisation. 

“Ireland’s share remains very small. I can’t see why we can’t get a fair share of the fish caught in our waters. The Commission is saying these talks cannot change the ‘relative stability’, but this is just another word for keeping the status quo intact.” 

In principal, ISWFPO, FishingForJustice.eu, and other groups have joined in the global chorus of applause for the imminent ban on dumping good fish. 

The detail must yet be worked out and voted upon, with some states seeking a total ban rather than the 7% to 9% discards being proposed for some stocks. 

“It is a shame to waste good fish when people are going hungry around the world,” said Mr Hassett. “That said, it is hard for us to support the discards ban when our quota is so ridiculously small. For us, that’s the real problem. 

“Some of the detail also needs to be worked out, like how will they dispose of over-quota fish. If a man lands over-quota fish, will they be deducted from his actual quota? Does he end up in ‘negative quota’?” 

The EU is expected to set aside funds to assist fishermen in buying new nets with larger meshes, which would allow smaller fish to get through. Scientists at the Marine Institute in Galway are among those trialling devices which allow smaller fish to escape from nets.

Answer

 Dried Bere Island  Hand Dived Scallop ©Kevin Thornton # Thornton's Restaurant 

Winner 

Guess whats in the Picture ???

? © Kevin Thornton # Thornton's Restaurant 

Rules 

The answer must to be Exact 

the Prize is a signed copy of my book Food For Life 

Closing Date Midnight Saturday 16th Febuary 

Pancakes Tuesday

#Shrove Tuesday Pancakes 

©Kevin Thornton # Thornton's Restaurant 

Kevin Thornton's pancakes

Chef Kevin Thornton popped into the Morning Ireland studio to make pancakes.

http://www.rte.ie/news/morningireland/kevinthornton.html

Ingredients

3 eggs (free range)

• 120 g plain flour (100g rice flour for coeliacs)
• 25 ml cream
• 45 ml milk
• 1 vanilla pod (fresh, if possible)
• 15 g melted butter
• pinch sea salt
• caster sugar
• lemons

Method

1. Mix ingredients together in a bowl. Let it rest for 2/3 hrs (or, even better, overnight).
2. Put the mixture through a fine strainer to make sure there are no lumps.
3. Heat a non-stick, or cast-iron, frying pan until very hot. Put a drop of sunflower oil into it, along with a nob of butter. Coat the pan and then pour the oil off into a separate bowl.
4. Ladel the mixture into the pan so it's as thick or thin as you like. Cook for about 10 secs (longer if the pancake is thicker), flip it and cook for the same time on the other side.
5. On a plate, sprinkle caster sugar. Put the pancake onto it. Drizzle lemon juice on top.
6. Eat!

Kevin Thornton's pancakes