Category Archives: Journalism

Ender’s Game

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A couple of year ago, I met and got to spend some time talking to the American author Orson Scott Card. He wrote one of my all time favourite books – Ender’s Game. A science fiction classic, it’s being made into a movie due out later this year, with some heavyweight actors involved including Harrison Ford.

Card himself made a strong impression on me. To be clear, he holds some political and religious views that leave me scratching my head -  he’s fairly conservative and devout in his Mormonism – but as a writer there’s no doubt that he’s extremely talented.

It will be interesting to see how Ender’s Game is translated into a big budget movie – the main character is a small child and yet it’s a book that deals in quite adult themes. Card has apparently said that it’s a substantial rewrite from his book – but he’s smart enough not to mind. Why should he? A film doesn’t replace a book – it exists alongside the original version of the story.

When I met him, we shared a car ride for a few hours during which we talked a little about his book. I didn’t think to bring a copy along for him to sign, but with no prompting he pulled into a strip mall with a giant bookstore, bought me a copy himself and signed it. As I said, a nice guy. Sense of humour too.

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Catching up & soundbites . . .

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It’s been a busy couple of months, and as a result the blog has suffered. As a professional writer, blogging is something I only really do if I’m not busy – (the last thing I want to do after a long day writing is write more.) Anyway, with Christmas approaching, I’ve got some down time, so I’m going to post a bit more here.

To start with, here are some clips of interviews I’ve done recently that people might be interested in.

Nick Landers of the FT, on the rise of the celebrity chef

Hugh Fernley-Whittingstall, on cutting his hair

Nigella Lawson, on her love of potatoes.

Like most journalists, I record as much as possible when interviewing people. This makes transcribing interview notes much easier, and also means that I can be sure I’ve represented my interview subjects properly. I’ve been doing this for years, and have enormous amounts of audio data on my main work PC. It only recently occured to me that people might be interested in hearing snippets from there. Most of these are tounge-in-cheek excerpts, but if people are interested then I will consider posting fuller versions of these interviews.

Let’s Go Disco – the launch

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So on Wednesday night we had the launch of Let’s Go Disco, with a party at the Cliff Townhouse on St Stephen’s Green in Dublin. Excuse me in advance, but there will quite a few superlatives in this blog post – I don’t see a way around them, and if you can’t express pride at a book launch for a book your very proud of, then when can you?

Around 130 people squashed into the dining room of the Townhouse, quaffed saffron-flavoured prosecco, Hendricks gin and tonics made with juniper-flavoured ice cubes and canapés drawn from the recipes in the book. Three large plasma screens showed off high definition pictures from the book, as well as the video clip Shane O’Neill made especially for the occasion, and the book was officially launched by guest of honour Derek Bulmer.

Adriaan Bartels, general manager of the Cliffhouse Hotel in Ardmore gave the introduction, Martijn gave a touching speech about the project and the importance of the team that lie at the heart of the House Restaurant and expressed sadness that James Rehill couldn’t be there to enjoy the evening with his colleagues.

The speeches were then finished off by the legendary Derek Bulmer. For people who don’t know who Derek is, he was the editor in chief of the Michelin Guide for the UK and Ireland for twelve years and worked as an inspector with the Guide for over 30 years. He’s the guy who decided on giving – and taking away – the much coveted stars that mean so much for the chefs and restaurants that have them. Think of any of the big names chefs in the UK or Ireland – the Hestons and Gordons of this world – he’s the guy who had the final say on awarding them their stars.

Michelin is an intriguing institution, and at a time when there seems to be a new restaurant awards taking place every month, the Guide still has a special place. I got a chance to chat to Derek for quite a while, and I could easily see how he was able to maintain his anonymity for so long – he’s a delightful, charming and totally unprepossessing guy. I would never have guessed who he was.

We are very grateful that Derek agreed to write the foreword to Let’s Go Disco, as it’s the first time he’s done that. Since he retired from the Guide two years ago, he’s been free to talk about his experiences and give interviews but amazingly he said nobody else had asked him to write a foreword.

In his speech he talked at length about his experiences in Ireland, as he came here three times a year for twenty years, racking up significant mileage driving around Ireland and dining incognito. He maintains a fondness for this country and had some very interesting things to say.

So that’s it, the book has been launched and is available to buy. I’ve updated the page on my website dedicated to the book with some photos and details on where it can be bought – for the record you can get it at receiption at the Townhouse in Dublin and the Cliffhouse in Ardmore or from the Cliffhouse website here.

Some preview copies of the book went out in digital form a few weeks ago so there will probably be some reviews or comment in the press about it. I’ll post these up as I find them and try to maintain a web presence for the book going forward. On Twitter, the hashtag #letsgodisco has seen a fair bit of activity in the last few days so if you’re interested, you can go check that out.

Otherwise, please buy a copy and enjoy it.

A bluffer’s guide to game

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Published in The Sunday Business Post Magazine on September 23rd, 2012. By Alex Meehan
Venison, pheasant, grouse, snipe: for food lovers, the reappearance of game is one of the highlights of autumn. It’s already popping up on restaurant menus around the country and will become a more frequent menu choice over the next couple of weeks.

You can also find wild and farmed game at an increasing of specialist food shops, including Fallon & Byrne on Wicklow Street in Dublin city centre. According to Tom Meenaghan, executive chef in charge of Fallon & Byrne’s restaurant, game is enjoying a resurgence in popularity, most notably because a growing segment of the market is getting back in touch with the idea of seasonality.

“In general, we can now pretty much get whatever we want to eat, whenever we want it and while the convenience of that is great, it takes some of the fun and anticipation out of our diets,” he says.

“But for a lot of people interested in game, the fact that it’s a seasonal product is part of its appeal. They look forward to the season starting and getting more variety in their diets.”

Fallon & Byrne starts to offer game in September and it remains a feature of their butcher’s counter through to the start of February each year. Their game is sourced from Irish estates including Slane Castle and Dromoland Castle, as well as from suppliers in the UK and France.

“We prefer to offer Irish when we can, but it’s typically harder to source. At the start of the season, you tend to pay a little more for game because it’s still scarce so there’s a premium. As more game comes in, supply catches up with demand and it becomes a little cheaper.”

For people interested in preparing game at home but unsure of where to start, Meenaghan offers the following advice.

“First, find a knowledgeable butcher or supplier. The average butcher’s counter in a supermarket won’t want to know if you ask questions so you need someone who will give advice on how to prepare and cook the various kinds of game they offer.”

“Secondly, don’t be afraid to try something new. A lot of people are used to eating the same kinds of meats all the time – lamb, pork, chicken and beef – and have an idea that game is very strongly flavoured but this isn’t necessarily the case,” he says.

While people may have an idea that game needs to be aged to the point of near rancidity, or until ‘high’ as it’s known, the reality is that game typically isn’t aged anywhere near as long as it used to be.

“Venison for example is now usually sold aged only six to ten days – it doesn’t hang around. Traditionally that would have been anything up to three weeks. Same with pheasant, which was traditionally always served ‘high’ but people don’t want that anymore. Tastes change and people like lighter textures and flavours today,” says Meenaghan

Finding a source for truly wild game is often quite difficult, but aficionados insist that going wild is the best way to enjoy a truly Irish eating experience.

“Conventional non-game meats are all produced in a controlled environment, on a farm where their diet and health is strictly controlled. Wild game is just that, wild. It’s not held in captivity and can roam and fly wherever it wants,” says Michael Healy of Wild Irish Game, a supplier of wild game to the Irish retail and restaurant trade.

“Their diet is whatever they can forage for themselves. Deer in the mountains for example eat a diet which is as close to organic as you can get. Obviously, it’s not certified that way because they can roam onto farm lands and eat crops which aren’t organic, but they’re as close as makes no difference.”

“They eat an extremely natural diet. The same with wild birds — pigeons feed on berries for part of the year then move onto clover and right now they’re feeding mostly off standing crops and grains,” he says.

Healy doesn’t hunt himself, saying he has no interest in shooting animals for sport and that his business is strictly food orientated. He has spent 20 years building up a network of suppliers who meet Irish and European legal and food standards.

“Most of our game comes from Wicklow – almost every game species appears in abundance in Wicklow with the exception of woodcock and snipe which are more widespread on the west coast of Ireland. We buy from commercial producers such as pheasant and wild duck produced on large estates, from individual hunters and from state parks such as from the Wicklow Mountains National Park and from Coillte when it culls to control deer numbers.”

According to Healy, the modern market for game was helped a lot by the boom years of the Celtic tiger, when game was widely served in Irish restaurants. While demand has slowed compared to then, it’s still growing.

“We still see a lot of game sold in restaurants, particularly the better ones, and we’re seeing retail demand driven by retail outlets in Dublin like Donnybrook Fair, Cavistons in Glasthule, Molloys in Donnybrook, Lawlors in Rathmines, Buckley’s in Moore St and so on. Superquinn also stocks our game in the run up to Christmas.”

When it comes to cooking, Fallon & Byrne’s Tom Meenaghan suggests that venison is the easiest game meat for the complete beginner.

“The thing to remember with venison, and with most game in fact, is that it’s very low in fat. That makes it super healthy but it has a drawback for the chef – you can’t overcook it or it will dry right out. It has to be served medium rare, or cooked in a liquid to keep it moist.”

“Loin of venison is easy to cook but it can be very expensive – comparable to fillet of beef. Instead, start with a slow cooked haunch of venison or a venison stew. Make a stew in the same way you might make a beef stew – with onions, carrots, red wine and mushrooms but use venison instead of beef and perhaps add in some juniper berries, which go particularly well with venison. You could even marinate the venison in red wine for a couple of days first to make it really tender,” he says.

When it comes to game birds, a key technique to remember is that layering strips of bacon on top of the birds can provide some extra fat to keep the breasts moist. Like all poultry, it’s usually better to detach the legs and cook them separately as they tend to require a little more time.

“Game birds tend to have very thin skins and not much fat content, so it can be hard to get the breast meat just right.”

The two classic ways or preparing game birds includes confiting them and roasting them. Because of the low fat content, slow cooking pheasant in goose fat produces a meltingly tender texture to the flesh. This can then be crisped up before serving in a pan for a really tasty dish.

“You can also roast game birds very successful. We do it in the restaurant by popping the whole birds into a pan breast-side down with a bit of oil and a knob of butter and searing them off for a few minutes on each breast. This takes four or five minutes, then you turn them right-side up again and put the pan into the oven.”

“After 15 or 20 minutes, depending on the size of the birds you take them out, detach the legs and put them back in while the meat rests. Small pigeons take only five or maybe eight minutes from start to finish with this method, because you can serve them rare. Pheasant needs to be cooked a bit more but needs to be moist. “

The classic accompaniments for game include all the things associated with the autumn and winter larder – root vegetables roasted or mashed, potatoes and celeriac and fruit based sauces such as plum or cranberry all work very well.

PANEL: What’s in season?

From August to early February – snipe
From early September to early February – venison
From early September to early February – partridge
From September to late January – wild duck
From September to late February – wild hare
From early September to late January – grouse

From late September to early February – woodcock
From early October to early February – pheasant

PANEL: Matching game to wine
By David Gallagher, Fallon & Byrne sommelier

Grouse or woodcock have a very strong, gamey-flavour that can cope with a full-flavoured red wine. Just avoid big tannic wines. A Northern Rhône wine such as Yves Cuilleron’s St Joseph (€32.95) would be a great match.

Wild Mallard duck has far more flavour than your average duck and so it needs a more flavoursome wine to match. An Australian Shiraz such as the delicious Turkey Flat Shiraz, Grenache, Mouvedre from the Barossa Valley (€29.95) should fit the bill.

Roast pheasant works very well with light, fruity varieties like pinot noir, especially those from North America or New Zealand. A delicious match would be the juicy Firesteed Pinot Noir from Oregon, USA (€20.95).

Venison is rich with a gamey flavour but is very lean. If you are roasting it try a red Burgundy such as the Givry Champ Nalot (€22.95) or if you are using it in a casserole, a beefier wine such as French Malbec like Cedre Heritage (€13.95) would work a treat. If you want to spoil yourself try the Chateau Du Cedre (€21.95).

Rabbit is normally paired with a lighter red such as a Côtes du Rhône, Chinon or Beaujolais, but something liked jugged rabbit can take a stronger flavour well. Try Alpha Zeta “A” Amarone (€31.95).

Guinea fowl is dark and more flavoursome than chicken, with a slight gamey taste. A rich, creamy white burgundy such as Olivier Leflaive’s St Romain (€28.95) is probably the best match.

Quail is a delicate bird with a fuller flavour that your average chicken, again this would be best with a full bodied white, this time why not try a good basic Bourgogne Blanc from Vincent Girardin (€18.95).

Book review: Down the darkest road

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Book review: Down the Darkest Road, By Tami Hoag
Published in the The sunday Business Post on February 26th, 2012. By Alex Meehan

If someone kidnapped one of your children, and you knew that they’d done it but couldn’t prove anything, what would you do? That’s the central question posed in Tami Hoag’s latest crime thriller, Down the Darkest Road, the third in the author’s Oak Knoll series of mysteries.

Set in the late 1980s when modern police mainstays such as forensics, mobile phone technology and DNA testing had yet to be become available, Down the Darkest Road tells the story of Lauren Lawton’s attempts to rebuild her life four years after the unsolved disappearance of her 16 year old daughter.

Missing and presumed dead, Leslie Lawton was abducted while on her way home from a softball game in 1986. The prime suspect for the crime was Lawton family neighbour Roland Ballencoa. Known to be a convicted sex offender, the crime fit his pattern of behaviour but despite believing him to be responsible, the police were unable to find any credible evidence to charge him.

While dealing with the trauma of the disappearance, further tragedy struck the Lawton family when Lauren’s husband drove his car off a cliff. It’s reported as suicide, but Lawton suspects her family is actually being stalked by Ballencoa.

Despite feeling sure her daughter Leslie is still alive somewhere, Lauren decides the best thing for her family is to relocate from Santa Barbara to sleepy Oak Knoll in search of a fresh start. However a few months later she’s shocked to spot Ballencoa in town and it’s not long before fresh reports start to surface of 16 year old girls going missing.

Lawton’s youngest daughter Leah will soon turn 16 and so she launches a fresh campaign to convince the local police of Ballencoa’s guilt. She wins allies in the form of FBI agent Vince Leone and Oak Knoll sheriff’s detective Tony Mendez, but as the law enforcement team begins to close in on the suspected killer a plot twist changes the way the police are obliged to interpret events to date.

Down the Darkest Road is a good example of Hoag’s work – a smart and stylish whodunit with a 1980s feel to it. For crime fans steeped in the CSI style modern approach to sleuthing, it’s interesting to spend time in a decade when old fashioned detective work ruled the day, and it wasn’t possible to send scene-of-the-crime clues to the forensic labs for positive identification. Instead, Vince Leone and Tony Mendez spend part of the story learning about the brand new concept of criminal profiling.

Down the Darkest Road is a classic suspense thriller, with a serious touch of melancholy thrown in. The central question of when and how a parent should move on following the death or disappearance of a child remains at the heart of the story, giving this novel a genuinely sad undercurrent. Hoag has attempted to create a nuanced story, one in which the bad guys aren’t all they seem to be, but neither are the good guys, and in that she has written something that has a bit more resonance and depth than the average pulp fiction crime thriller.

It’s not perfect – there are some unresolved plot points and the plot twist when it arrives is jarring – but the characters are well drawn and it’s well paced. Down the Darkest Road will keep crime fans happy but also stands alone as a solid story that non-genre fans should get something out of.

Christopher Hitchens.

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It’s comments like this that sum up a few of the qualities that I really admired about Christopher Hitchens.

One of our lunches, at Café Milano, the Rick’s Café of Washington, began at 1 P.M., and ended at 11:30 P.M. At about nine o’clock (though my memory is somewhat hazy), he said, “Should we order more food?” I somehow crawled home, where I remained under medical supervision for several weeks, packed in ice with a morphine drip. Christopher probably went home that night and wrote a biography of Orwell. His stamina was as epic as his erudition and wit.

I came to Hitchen’s writings late in my life (and even later in his, it has sadly turned out), but I stand in awe of the man’s wit, intelligence, style and turn of phrase. A giant of a man, in all senses of the word. We are genuinely worse off  as a culture without him and there really aren’t that many people you can say that about.

I’m really very sorry I never got to meet him. It will stand as a regret of my life. Sometimes these things are not meant to be, but I am fairly certain from his writings and his bombast that we would have got on. Of course, now I’ll never know.

Star turn – A day in a michelin star kitchen

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This is one of the more interesting commissions I’ve had lately – in March, I spent a 14 hour day working in the kitchen at the Cliff House Hotel in Waterford with Martijn Kajuiter and his team. This piece was published this week as a result. Thanks to Shane O’Neill for allowing me to use his excellent photography. He’s also blogged about this job and you can read his thoughts, somewhat amusingly entitled ‘When Alex met Martijn,’ here.

This story has generated a lot of interest on Twitter, and I’ve picked up a lot of foodie followers as a result. Hopefully you find it interesting – Alex

Star Turn
Published in The Sunday Business Post on May 15th, 2011, by Alex Meehan

How hard could it be? I’ve just persuaded Martijn Kajuiter, the Michelin-starred chef at the Cliff House Hotel in Ardmore, Co Waterford, to let me do a stint in his kitchen.

Now I’m wondering exactly what I’ve let myself in for.

It won’t be a case of dropping in for a couple of hours – Kajuiter has made it clear that he expects me to do a full shift and that I won’t be getting any special treatment. It’s a little more than I bargained for, but it’s an opportunity that’s just too good to miss.

Kajuiter is one of the very few – six to be exact – chefs in Ireland who hold a Michelin star, and is the only one of that small group who is based outside Dublin. Born in the

Netherlands, the 35-year-old came to the Cliff House in 2008 at the invitation of owner Barry O’Callaghan, having worked with some of the biggest names in the culinary world, including Pierre Koffmann, Marco Pierre White and Henk Savelberg.

A physically imposing man – he is 6 feet 8 inches tall – Kajuiter has established himself as one of the most innovative chefs working in Ireland. Winning a Michelin star in 2010 and keeping it in 2011 has put his restaurant on the map, and made the Cliff House a place that people go out of their way to visit.

While it’s hard to put an exact value on winning a star, at a time when many Irish hotels are struggling to stay open let alone turn a profit, the Cliff House enjoys enviable occupancy rates.

‘‘When we opened, everyone said, ‘oh he’s aiming for a star’ because of what we were serving, but I really wasn’t,” says Kajuiter.

‘‘I was looking for happiness in life, believe it or not. I wanted to work with a great team, be creative and cook in an amazing place. I wanted to do that with my wife and kids alongside me.

‘‘Of course I’m proud of our achievement – I am a chef after all – but the star came because of our approach and our commitment to quality, not because we set out to get one.”

What makes a Michelin-starred kitchen special? Obviously to the diner and the Michelin inspector, it’s the food on the plate – the quality of the ingredients, their seasonality, the design of the dish, the presentation and the taste. But that’s only one part of the picture.

Consistency is the real challenge. It’s one thing to be able to put together a plate of food to Michelin standard, but it’s quite another to do it on a busy Saturday night in a full restaurant, executing each and every plate to the same standard, and making sure that every dish gets to each diner at the right temperature, and at the right time.

Achieving this means starting early.

When I arrive in Kajuiter’s kitchen at 11am on a Saturday morning, the place is already buzzing. It’s relatively small for an operation of this size, but it’s functional. The main kitchen area is constructed around a central island of stoves and ovens, with each station operating in its own distinct area.

Meat and fish are in one corner, as are pastry and desserts, stocks, baking and garnishing.

At the front is the pass, the place where garnishes are finished and assembled dishes pause under the heat lamps for the few critical seconds it takes to get the chef’s approval before they are sent to the dining room.

Kajuiter shows me around, introducing me to a succession of slightly harassed looking junior chefs who are busy making stocks for sauce bases, preparing garnishes, making fresh pasta and ravioli, and otherwise prepping for lunch service in the bar and dinner in the main restaurant that night.

All of the ingredients are sourced locally – on the menu tonight are scallops from west Cork, organic salmon from Bantry Bay, Waterford spring chicken, Helvick monkfish, Black Angus beef, lamb from Lismore and duck from Skeaghanore.

For the kitchen staff, service starts in earnest at around 6.30pm, and once the first guests are seated, there is no longer time to tidy up loose ends.

One mistake can derail the whole effort, and making sure that doesn’t happen takes an enormous amount of advance preparation.

For the senior staff, the working day starts with the daily morning meeting, which is held in the dining room over freshly brewed coffee.

Kajuiter and his second in command, sous chef Dirk Mooren, sit down with Paul and Nick (the meat and fish chefs), and Gareth and Patrick (pastry, desserts, baking and petit fours) to dissect the previous night’s service and discuss their plans for the evening ahead.

Kitchens are notoriously rough and ready places to work, and while Kajuiter is soft spoken and respectful with his staff, there’s no question about who’s in charge. He is ruthless in identifying where things could have been tighter the night before, and when a suggestion is made for a potential special, he quickly points out that it’s not seasonal enough.

‘‘We have a journalist with us today, but I don’t care about that,” he says. ‘‘Everyone is to do things exactly as you otherwise would. He should see things as they are. No pretty faces just for today.”

With that, we’re up and off. The others head back to prep, and Kajuiter brings me out to one of his newly-built greenhouses in the grounds of the hotel, where he grows some of the more delicate and perishable herbs and edible flowers which he uses in his dishes.

There’s cress, marjoram, pea shoots, chervil, beetroot, rocket, fennel, sweet woodruff and edible viola, or Irish molly flowers, as well as a vast array of other unusual herbs he’s grown from seed.

Seasonality and the use of local produce are at the heart of Kajuiter’s food, but that creates its own problems.

‘‘This isn’t Dublin – if we run short of something or sell out of something, we can’t just nip out to get more,” he says. ‘‘We’re in Waterford, and that means careful planning and working with the seasons.”

With this in mind, a few years ago he came to an agreement with the managers of St Raphael’s residential and daycare centre In Youghal to bring its organic nursery back to life.

We spend part of the afternoon in the two large poly tunnels there, picking out fresh produce from the evening service.

Back in the kitchen, as the afternoon wears on things start to heat up, both literally and figuratively. Junior chefs are shouted at when it looks like standards might slip; a fire alarm goes off when someone overloads a tumble dryer, but the kitchen staff barely stop to acknowledge it; and when the staff meal is served at around 5pm, it’s eaten standing up.

It’s an intense working environment, so it’s natural that emotions run high.

The staff are all extremely skilled in their own right – most of them could easily get a head chef job somewhere else if they wanted it – but they stay because they know they’re getting the kind of experience that will stand to them for life.

At one point during the evening service, what seems like a full-scale riot breaks out in the kitchen as Kajuiter picks up on a mistake.

One of the line chefs has got his timing wrong, resulting in three main courses being ready to go at the pass, while one more is late.

The chef is not a beginner, but this is a rookie mistake.

To make matters worse, when he’s asked about his timing, he tries to cover for his error, something which riles Kajuiter more than the initial mistake. He gets a severe dressing down, while around him, his colleagues avert their gaze and keep working.

The atmosphere is extremely tense, but five minutes later things are back to normal and all seems to be forgiven.

‘‘There might be shouting or harsh words, but it’s forgotten about quickly,” Kajuiter says. ‘‘If I’m out of line I’ll apologise. I don’t believe in a culture of fear in the kitchen. It doesn’t get the best out of people, and you don’t keep staff.

‘‘People who work here do it for more than just a pay cheque.

Every single person has a function in the kitchen, and they all make it work. If the kitchen porter doesn’t deliver the goods, we’re all screwed.”

Kajuiter is acutely aware that a Michelin star can be a double-edged sword. While it has sent the profile of the Cliff House sky high, it has also probably led some people to presume that it is out of their price range.

‘‘A Michelin star puts you in a box,” he says. ‘‘It makes people think you are expensive and exclusive, but that’s the wrong way to look at it.

‘‘Having one star means that you are an exceptionally good restaurant in your own category. It’s about what’s on the plate – your restaurant could be in a shed in the middle of the mountains, but if you are cooking fantastic food, you could get a star.

It has nothing to do with being expensive, or Having Wedgwood plates, or what the room is like.”

Prices haven’t gone up in the restaurant since the star was awarded – a three-course meal costs €65,while an eight-course tasting menu costs €85.Matched wines cost €25 or €40 per person with the tasting menu.

If Kajuiter could ask one thing of his customers, it’s that they don’t pre-judge the experience of eating in his restaurant.

‘‘Sometimes people have such high expectations that if one little thing isn’t how they think it should be, then the whole experience is ruined for them,” he says. ‘‘If something isn’t right, it isn’t right – and please tell us if that’s the case – but this isn’t a competition between the kitchen and the guest. It’s a celebration.

We want you to be thrilled.”

It’s 8.30pm, and service is in full flow. The restaurant is packed; 72 guests are eating dinner tonight, and 14 of them are having the tasting menu.

Earlier in the day I’d prepared garnishes and helped with prep, but for the last hour or so I’d been watching from the sidelines, as service started in earnest.

Suddenly Kajuiter is explaining tome what he wants done and how to do it.

The dish is a salmon starter I saw prepared earlier – the organic fish from Bantry Bay is served as a ballotine, as an ice cream and also marinated, along with preserved cucumber and beetroot textures.

It has to be plated up with herbs and leaves in just the right place, and with sauces added dot by dot, in the right order and quantity.

At the pass, it’s topped with a glass dome, and a special gadget is used to ignite oak sawdust, which is then pumped under the dome.

The plate is then whisked away to the dining room, where the server presents it to the diner by lifting off the dome and releasing the smoke. It’s a clever take on smoked salmon – or maybe smoking salmon would be a more accurate description.

By now I’ve watched quite a few of these plates make it to the pass and enjoyed the theatre of the final preparation.

Now, Kajuiter is beside me. ‘‘So you’ve seen how to do it, yes? Okay, time to get those pristine whites dirty.”

He has me plate up with him, watching each step to see if I’ve got it right.

The atmosphere is suddenly tense, and I’m aware that he’s not treating me like a guest in his kitchen any more – we’re working on food that is going out to the dining room.

‘‘Okay, that’s good. Do four more.”

He moves away, leaving a plate for me to copy and I’m on my own, concentrating as hard as I ever have.

The noise and bustle behind me fade away while I hunch over the plate.

A minute later he’s back, examining my work.

‘‘Yes, that’s it. Good. Okay, take them to the pass.”

At the front of the kitchen, the restaurant manager and two servers are waiting.

Kajuiter is beside me, telling me to hurry up.

I load up the smoke burner, switch on the pump and get ready to light the wood. It’s a fiddly job, and Kajuiter is getting impatient with the delay – there are paying guests waiting for this food, and the salmon must go to the table at exactly the same time as other dishes, which have just arrived on the pass.

I’m suddenly painfully conscious of the audience of servers, management and other chefs watching me from the corner of their eye.

‘‘Okay, go! Add the smoke. Like that. No, add more. Okay, and the next plate. Hurry up. Get it right. Too slow! Okay, there. It’s done. SERVICE! Go go go!” The plates are taken away, and I’m struggling to turn the blowtorch off. I’m sweating and my heart is racing. Kajuiter is smiling.

‘‘How did that feel? Scary, huh? That’s how Marco made me feel my first service with him. It’s a buzz, isn’t it?”

Fourteen hours after I arrived, I’m sitting in Kajuiter’s office having a coffee. In the dining room, the last guest is nibbling on petits fours, while in the kitchen, the staff are starting the clean-down process, scrubbing the room until it gleams and is ready for it all to happen again tomorrow.

Including amuses bouches, sorbets, starters, main courses and desserts,430 plates of food have left the kitchen this evening. It has been an exhausting and exhilarating experience.

But, most importantly, it didn’t kill me.

Article: London Olympics 2012

2 Replies

Here’s my Agenda cover on the 2012 Olympic Games from a week or so ago. For some reason, when The Post updates its website, panel pieces have a tendency to be left out, so I’ve included them here.

London Fields
Published in The Sunday Business Post on March 13th, 2011, by Alex Meehan

There may be just under 18months to go to the opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympic Games, but for anyone considering a trip to London to cheer on the Irish team, next Tuesday is an important date.

On that day, applications open for tickets for the Games, and with the event just an hour away by plane, demand for tickets is expected to be huge.

To get to London 2012, Irish fans will have to compete in a lottery-style ticket allocation system for all but the most niche interest sports. ‘‘The reality is that there are no 500,000-seater stadiums, so unfortunately, not everyone will get to see the events they want to see,” says Stephen Martin, chief executive of the Olympics Council of Ireland.

‘‘Generally, the most popular events from A ticketing point of view are the ones that are really dramatic. Athletics is extremely popular, and the finals of events like the 100 metres and the relay races towards the end of the athletics programme are all prime events.

From an Irish point of view, we have a strong boxing element to our team, so two or three of the boxing finals could also figure prominently for us.”

‘‘Everyone wants to see the same batch of events, and the finals are always oversubscribed in pretty much every discipline. It’s easier to see the early rounds of most sports, most notably those like football where there are big stadiums.

There will also be a little bit of pressure when it comes to getting access to opening and closing ceremonies.”

For the city of London, the prospect of welcoming hundreds of thousands tourists for the Games, in addition to those who are visiting the city for other reasons, represents an unparalleled promotional opportunity.

‘‘It’s the world’s biggest sporting event, and we’re expecting a lot of visitors,” says Jacqueline French of Visit London. ‘‘London is a well-connected city that is relatively easy to get to, and we’re hoping that this will encourage people to come. In particular, we think that fans of Olympic sports who normally watch the Games on TV may make the effort this time around.”

Visit London estimates that around 320,000 international visitors will travel to Britain for the Games, but is unable to predict just how many will come from Ireland.

‘‘We have done research which says that the appeal of, and interest in, the Olympics is just as high in Ireland as it is here in Britain,” says French. ‘‘That would suggest that a lot of Irish people are likely to visit, probably more than from many other countries.

There’s already lots of interest from Ireland, And we only expect that to build as the Games get closer.”

French’s advice for Irish people thinking of travelling to the Games is to book ahead and to consider all options. ‘‘By the time the

Games come around, we should have around 120,000 hotel rooms available in London itself,” she says.

‘‘It’s likely that once the tickets are on sale, people will start looking for accommodation, so there will probably be a rush. It’s worth looking ahead for accommodation, but bear in mind that many hotels haven’t yet released prices.

Keep an eye on the different hotels – once one or two of them start launching Olympic packages, then they all will.

‘‘There are quite a few of the budget chains, such as Travelodge, that offer great value for money, and groups can often benefit from self-catered apartments.

They allow you to come and go as you want and cater for yourself, and that can help keep costs under control.”

With any large event, it’s not unusual for the hospitality industry to capitalise on increased demand by pushing prices up.

However, efforts have been made to try to keep this to a minimum.

‘‘We’ve been working on a fair pricing and practice charter, predominantly aimed at the hospitality and events industry,” says Jacqueline French.

‘‘What we’re saying is that this is our chance to showcase London, and we’re encouraging people not to mess that up by hiking prices.

Obviously, we don’t have any official control over prices, but we’re all interested in promoting the city for the future as well as just for this event.”

Getting around London is relatively easy, if sometimes time-consuming. Ideally, visitors will attempt to base themselves near the locations where their chosen sports are scheduled to be played.

The main Olympic village itself is in Stratford in east London, and it is in this area that the main events, including athletics, swimming and cycling, will take place.

‘‘Some of the other sporting venues in London will also be used, such as Wembley Stadium for football and Wimbledon for tennis,” says French. ‘‘Tennis isn’t such a popular Olympic sport, but getting tickets for Wimbledon itself is often very hard, so this is an opportunity for tennis fans to watch top-tier tennis in Wimbledon as part of the Games.

The atmosphere there is always great, and I’m sure that will be carried through to the Olympics.”

But just how many Irish athletes will be heading to London 2012? ‘‘Traditionally, we take part in ten to 12 sports, and send 40 to 50 athletes to the Olympics. London looks like it will shape up similarly,” says Stephen Martin.

‘‘It’s hard to say right now how many Irish sportsmen and women will travel to the Games, because in many sports the qualification process is still ongoing, but it could be anything from 40 to around 64.We will know better at the end of this year.”

Martin says the fact that the Games are Taking place to close to home will probably mean more to spectators than it will to competitors. ‘‘Proximity to Ireland doesn’t really make a huge difference to our efforts – we still have to qualify in each event,” he says.

‘‘There will definitely be more interest in the Games themselves though, because they’re so close. There will probably be much more coverage here in Ireland of the Games, and we do expect more Irish spectators to visit London.”

According to Martin, there is strong potential for Irish representation in athletics, badminton, boxing, canoe slalom and flat water, road and track cycling; equestrian events including showjumping and eventing; judo; modern pentathlon; rowing; sailing; swimming; shooting; triathlon and taekwondo.

‘‘In athletics, we have quite a few potential qualifiers, with around eight athletes and a relay team.

These eight include a couple of walkers – Robbie Heffernan and Olive Loughnane – who finished in the top eight in the world and Olympic Games in the last few years.

We also have David Gillick and Derval O’Rourke, who made the finals in the European or world championships in the last few years, and Paul Hession, who has made the semi-finals in the 200 metres,” he says.

‘‘They are the athletes that most people would expect to qualify and do well, and there will be quite a few people looking out for them.

There is also potential for a women’s relay team in both the 100 and 400 metres in track and field, but we have to be in the top 16 in the world to qualify.”

Badminton players Scott Evans and Chloe Magee, both of whom competed in Beijing, are seeking to qualify again.

‘‘In boxing, the national champions are preparing for the world championships, and that’s the first opportunity they will get to qualify,” says Martin.
‘‘We have people like Paddy Barnes, who has maintained a consistent level since Beijing and who has gone on to win medals at the European championships and Commonwealth games.

Because Joe Ward beat Kenny Egan in the national championships, he will be going to the world championships, and Kenny Egan won’t. If Joe secures a quarter-final placing, that will qualify him for the Olympics.

There’s a chance that Kenny might try to get there by a different route, but it all depends on how they do at the world championships.”

Katie Taylor is probably Ireland’s most high-profile Olympic hopeful, while her fellow boxer John Joe Nevin is also aiming to qualify for London. ‘‘John Joe was the first to qualify last time around for Beijing, and he won the national championships this time around as well,” says Martin. Other Irish Olympic hopefuls include road cyclist Nicolas Roche, Beijing Olympian Eoin Rheinisch in the canoe slalom, and flat-water canoeist Barry Watkins.

‘‘In the equestrian events, we have Denis Lynch and Billy Toomey, who are in the top 15 in the world showjumping rankings, as well as eventing riders Jane Doherty, Captain Geoff Curran, Sam Watson and others.

Natalya Coyle will hopefully qualify in the modern pentathlon, while Lisa Kearney is well on her way to representing Ireland in judo, and is currently ranked ninth in the world,” says Martin. In rowing, Ireland’s hopes rest with a largely new team which is under 23 years of age – the experienced rowers retired after Beijing, leaving the field open to a new generation.

In triathlon, Aileen Morrison has won medals on the world cup circuit, while in sailing Peter O’Leary won the Skandia Olympic Test event last summer in Weymouth in the star class.

‘‘In some events, you either qualify or you don’t, but in others there is more time to approach qualifying from a few different angles,” says Stephen Martin.

‘‘The fact that the Games are so close to Ireland will raise the profile of Irish sport, So we would like to try to make use of it and get people interested in taking part. Sports that don’t usually get much coverage here will probably also get more attention this time around, which should be great for their profile.”

PANEL OUT: How to get tickets

Approximately 8.8 million tickets will be made available for the 2012 Olympic Games, with applications being accepted between March 15 and April 26 2011.

To get tickets, applicants need to visit a special ticket website to register their interest. For sessions where demand exceeds supply, the organisers have said they’ll use an automated and random selection process to ensure the fairest allocation of tickets. People successful in securing tickets can pay for them between May 10 and June 10, with prices ranging from £20 up to an eye watering £725 for some of the most high profile finals. Prices average at around £90.

Package deals are also on offer from three official hospitality companies – Thomas Cook, Prestige Ticketing and Jet Set Sports. For more information and to register for tickets, visit http://www.tickets.london2012.com

PANEL Lisa Kearney – Judo

With several world class wins under her black belt, 21 year old Northern Irish Judo competitor Lisa Kearney is well on her way to the 2012 Olympic games.

Currently ranked at 9th in the world in her category, she easily falls inside the qualifying cut off point of being within the world’s top 14 competitors, but in order to make to the games she has to maintain this position between now and the start of the event.

“Our qualifying process doesn’t finish until April 2012, so there’s a fair bit of time in front of me,” says Kearney. “It takes three years to qualify in Judo, so it’s really long compared to some of the other sports. I’m about half way through now. At the start of the qualifying cycle, my coaches and I decided we’d have a go at it, but the more I’ve competed and the more success I’ve had, the prospect has become quite realistic. Now it’s achievable but there’s a lot of work to do.”

Kearney has relocated from her home in Belfast where she trained with the Yamakwai Judo Dojo to Edinburgh where she now trains full time with the British squad.

“There is no full time Judo set up anywhere in Ireland, so I had to move away. I was looking at different places – but there’s a full time training facility in Edinburgh and it’s used as an Olympic training centre, so I know I can get the best quality coaching and other players to train with. My coach from my home club, Ciaran Ward, has been excellent and he knew the coaches over here so he was able to set it up for me.”

Kearney has been practicing Judo for 13 years, since she was 8 years old, and believes that an early start is definitely an advantage when it comes to stepping up to the standard of judo found at the Olympic games.

“It’s good to start young — it definitely helps — but it’s not absolutely necessary. The Olympic standard is completely different to what you see in normal international competitions, but it’s quite close to what I’m seeing now here in the UK. I’m competing in the world cups, grand prix, grand slams – and the people who are at these competitions are the people who will be at the Olympics. The standard is much higher but I have a good idea what I’m going to face.”

One challenge all Olympic athletes face is how to fund the in depth and often full time training required to compete on the international stage.

“It’s very expensive to do what I’m doing. I’m attending university in a part time capacity, but I’m doing it really slowly and fitting it in around training. My parents help me out, I get some grant money in Northern Ireland but I’d love to be sponsored,” says Kearney.

“Success in Judo comes from having a high level of fitness, a high level of training and just that little bit of luck as well. Sometimes there are things that are outside your control – how a referee’s decision goes, what kind of draw you get and even if you have a cold on the day or not. Sometimes a little bit of luck goes a long way.”

PANEL Sam Watson – Three day eventing

Born in Carlow, the 25 year old Sam Watson is currently based in the UK, where he is in intensive training for his chosen equestrian discipline of three day eventing, along with his horse Horseware Bushman, or George, as he is otherwise known.

“Sports eventing is like the pentathalon in athletics except for horses. We do three phases – dressage, show jumping and cross country – and I think the cross country is the centrepiece of the sport,” says Watson.

“It’s traditionally the most watched phase and it’s the most physically demanding on the horse. Dressage is a little like gym-work for a horse – teaching it to go sideways, backwards and forwards –it’s very much a discipline thing and control over the horse is very important. It builds up lots of muscles in the horse and strengthens it –it makes a horse into an athlete.”

Watson is considered one of Ireland’s best hopes for qualification, although he narrowly missed out on winning an automatic place at the Olympics at last year’s world games.

“There was one event last year, the world games, which offered a one off chance to qualify straight away and we narrowly missed that – we finished seventh and the top six automatically qualified. To make matter worse, we were sitting in sixth place for most of it and lost out at the last minute,” he says.

“As of March 1 though, there is a 12 month window where every international at the top level will count towards individual rankings, so this is the year to work hard.”

Watson has based himself in the UK in order to get access to more regular competitions. “Ireland is a big country for breeding and producing sports horses for show jumping and eventing. We breed great horses and many of the top German, English and American riders are riding Irish horses. England and Germany is where you find the best trainers though. We also only have one three star event in Ireland – the equivalent of a European championship. The Olympics is a four star event – we don’t have any of those, but there are two in the UK every year.”

Like other Irish Olympic hopefuls, Watson would love to see more sponsorship money made available to those athletes and competitors that have large overheads.

“Horses aren’t cheap. It costs me about €25,000 a year to run a top level horse and that’s before I support myself or pay for things like sports psychology, nutrition and all the other assets that make the winning difference,” he says.

“I’m lucky, I come from a horsey background so I’ve never had to buy a horse, but I’ve spent ten hard years training my horse and a lot of effort has gone into him and there’s no back up there if something happens. Most of the wealthier riders we’re up against have three or four top level backups in the stables. I can only run my horse six times a year, tops, but they can ride much more often.”

Watson is one of five athletes to get an Olympic scholarship and while he is extremely grateful for the money, he argues that “it’s not much in the grand scheme of things.”

“It’s around €20,000 between now and London 2012. That’s just over €1,000 a month, which does make a big difference because it takes pressure off me, but it’s nowhere near enough money to allow me to dedicate myself to training full time.”

PANEL Bryan Keane – Triathlon

Currently based in Spain, ex photographer turned full time triathlete Bryan Keane has overcome some serious setbacks to get himself race fit for the Olympics. Last September the Corkman was hit by a car while out cycling, breaking his kneecap in the process.

“My season has been affected as a result – I’m starting a little late but I hope to be race fit for the end of April or beginning of May. I should be fine,” he says.

Keane races Olympic distance triathlons, which involves swimming 1500 metres, cycling 40 kilometres and then running 10 kilometres. Considered one of the most demanding and difficult of Olympic events, it requires special determination to be in with a chance of winning.

“It’s pretty hardcore. The International Triathlon Union is our governing body and we race a circuit in the same way that tennis or motorsport has its circuits. It’s separate to the ironman brand – we’re more short course than long course athletes.”

Keane has been taking part in the triathlon for just three years, but has previously both run and cycled for Ireland and had competed in swimming. He made the choice to switch to triathlon when he realised he could combine his abilities in that discipline and reach a higher level than in the constituent sports.

“I knew what I could achieve within running and within cycling – I had brought myself to an international standard in those fields and I knew I couldn’t really make a living from them. I always wanted to do triathlon so I decided to go for it. The training routine is pretty full on though – I’m currently training 25 to 30 hours a week, roughly broken down in four sessions a day.”

“I swim six days a week, and cycle between 25 to 40 kilometres a week. Each athlete has weak points and strong points but in triathlon you’re only as good as your weakest event. You might spend more time in the pool or on your bike depending on where you know you need more work.”

Keane is training full time and says it’s not really possible to train at this level and also hold down a job. “It’s a full time endeavour  so sports council funding is extremely important. I’m relying on funding and I have some good sponsorship. We get good TV and media coverage for our events, so that makes it worthwhile to sponsor us, and the prize money is good,” he says.

“It costs between €35,000 to €40,000 – it’s expensive, but not compared to sailing or horse riding. Kinetica, a nutrition brand, has been very good to me not just with financial aid but also in lending me a nutritionist. I’m also sponsored by a bike shop in Ireland, so I do all right,” says Keane.

PANEL Annalise Murphy – Sailing

For most people sailing is a sedate and relaxing hobby, but not for 21 year old Olympic hopeful Annalise Murphy. Racing laser radial dinghies is a passion that has lead her to the top of her discipline and to within reach of qualification for the 2012 games.

Murphy recently cracked the top ten world ranking list for the first time, after coming fourth in her event in the latest round of the International Sailing Federation’s World Cup in Miami. Now ranked ninth in the world, she has deferred finishing her science degree in UCD to pursue her Olympic dream.

“There are eighteen months to the games and that seems like both a long time and no time at all to me. I’ve basically been sailing full time for the last two years and the time has just flown by. It’s gone so quick I can’t believe it,” she says.

“I sail laser radial, a small dinghy used for women’s Olympic class racing. It’s basically one person in a boat with one sail. I’ve been sailing all my life, since I was three or four and I’ve been sailing radial since 2005. I come from a sailing family, and actually my mum Cathy sailed in the Olympics in 1988 so it’s a family tradition now.”
“It’s a passion, something I’ve grown up doing and I love it. It’s become harder as it’s no longer just a sport I do for fun – I’m doing it as a full time job and that’s obviously different.“

The Rathfarnham based woman has clocked up some very respectable wins in the time she’s been sailing full time. In July 2009, she became the first Irish sailor to win a Europa Cup event in 13 years and later that year at her first world championship as a senior in Japan, she won the under-21 world title. In 2010 she picked up wins in Brisbane and Melbourne.

“Everything I do every day is geared towards getting as good as possible in advance of the 2012 Olympics. My parents and some family friends are covering most of the bills, and I get a grant from the Irish Sports Council because I was eighth at the world championships in 2009, and that makes a huge difference. But sailing is a hugely expensive sport,” she says.

“We have so much more costs than everyone else – an athlete just needs a new pair of trainers every now and again but we need a new boat, a new set of sails for every race, and that costs €500 each time – it all adds up to quite a lot. You can have corporate sponsorship but it’s hard to get.”

ENDS

ANEL OUT: How to get tickets

Approximately 8.8 million tickets will be made available for the 2012 Olympic Games, with applications being accepted between March 15 and April 26 2011.

To get tickets, applicants need to visit a special ticket website to register their interest. For sessions where demand exceeds supply, the organisers have said they’ll use an automated and random selection process to ensure the fairest allocation of tickets. People successful in securing tickets can pay for them between May 10 and June 10, with prices ranging from £20 up to an eye watering £725 for some of the most high profile finals. Prices average at around £90.

Package deals are also on offer from three official hospitality companies – Thomas Cook, Prestige Ticketing and Jet Set Sports. For more information and to register for tickets, visit http://www.tickets.london2012.com

ENDS

PANEL OUT:  Lisa Kearney – Judo

With several world class wins under her black belt, 21 year old Northern Irish Judo competitor Lisa Kearney is well on her way to the 2012 Olympic games.

Currently ranked at 9th in the world in her category, she easily falls inside the qualifying cut off point of being within the world’s top 14 competitors, but in order to make to the games she has to maintain this position between now and the start of the event.

“Our qualifying process doesn’t finish until April 2012, so there’s a fair bit of time in front of me,” says Kearney. “It takes three years to qualify in Judo, so it’s really long compared to some of the other sports. I’m about half way through now. At the start of the qualifying cycle, my coaches and I decided we’d have a go at it, but the more I’ve competed and the more success I’ve had, the prospect has become quite realistic. Now it’s achievable but there’s a lot of work to do.”

Kearney has relocated from her home in Belfast where she trained with the Yamakwai Judo Dojo to Edinburgh where she now trains full time with the British squad.

“There is no full time Judo set up anywhere in Ireland, so I had to move away. I was looking at different places – but there’s a full time training facility in Edinburgh and it’s used as an Olympic training centre, so I know I can get the best quality coaching and other players to train with. My coach from my home club, Ciaran Ward, has been excellent and he knew the coaches over here so he was able to set it up for me.”

Kearney has been practicing Judo for 13 years, since she was 8 years old, and believes that an early start is definitely an advantage when it comes to stepping up to the standard of judo found at the Olympic games.

“It’s good to start young — it definitely helps — but it’s not absolutely necessary. The Olympic standard is completely different to what you see in normal international competitions, but it’s quite close to what I’m seeing now here in the UK. I’m competing in the world cups, grand prix, grand slams – and the people who are at these competitions are the people who will be at the Olympics. The standard is much higher but I have a good idea what I’m going to face.”

One challenge all Olympic athletes face is how to fund the in depth and often full time training required to compete on the international stage.

“It’s very expensive to do what I’m doing. I’m attending university in a part time capacity, but I’m doing it really slowly and fitting it in around training. My parents help me out, I get some grant money in Northern Ireland but I’d love to be sponsored,” says Kearney.

“Success in Judo comes from having a high level of fitness, a high level of training and just that little bit of luck as well. Sometimes there are things that are outside your control – how a referee’s decision goes, what kind of draw you get and even if you have a cold on the day or not. Sometimes a little bit of luck goes a long way.”

ENDS

PANEL OUT: Sam Watson – Three day eventing

Born in Carlow, the 25 year old Sam Watson is currently based in the UK, where he is in intensive training for his chosen equestrian discipline of three day eventing, along with his horse Horseware Bushman, or George, as he is otherwise known.

“Sports eventing is like the pentathalon in athletics except for horses. We do three phases – dressage, show jumping and cross country – and I think the cross country is the centrepiece of the sport,” says Watson.

“It’s traditionally the most watched phase and it’s the most physically demanding on the horse. Dressage is a little like gym-work for a horse – teaching it to go sideways, backwards and forwards –it’s very much a discipline thing and control over the horse is very important. It builds up lots of muscles in the horse and strengthens it –it makes a horse into an athlete.”


Watson is considered one of Ireland’s best hopes for qualification, although he narrowly missed out on winning an automatic place at the Olympics at last year’s world games.

“There was one event last year, the world games, which offered a one off chance to qualify straight away and we narrowly missed that – we finished seventh and the top six automatically qualified. To make matter worse, we were sitting in sixth place for most of it and lost out at the last minute,” he says.

“As of March 1 though, there is a 12 month window where every international at the top level will count towards individual rankings, so this is the year to work hard.”

Watson has based himself in the UK in order to get access to more regular competitions. “Ireland is a big country for breeding and producing sports horses for show jumping and eventing. We breed great horses and many of the top German, English and American riders are riding Irish horses. England and Germany is where you find the best trainers though. We also only have one three star event in Ireland – the equivalent of a European championship. The Olympics is a four star event – we don’t have any of those, but there are two in the UK every year.”

Like other Irish Olympic hopefuls, Watson would love to see more sponsorship money made available to those athletes and competitors that have large overheads.

“Horses aren’t cheap. It costs me about €25,000 a year to run a top level horse and that’s before I support myself or pay for things like sports psychology, nutrition and all the other assets that make the winning difference,” he says.

“I’m lucky, I come from a horsey background so I’ve never had to buy a horse, but I’ve spent ten hard years training my horse and a lot of effort has gone into him and there’s no back up there if something happens. Most of the wealthier riders we’re up against have three or four top level backups in the stables. I can only run my horse six times a year, tops, but they can ride much more often.”

Watson is one of five athletes to get an Olympic scholarship and while he is extremely grateful for the money, he argues that “it’s not much in the grand scheme of things.”

“It’s around €20,000 between now and London 2012. That’s just over €1,000 a month, which does make a big difference because it takes pressure off me, but it’s nowhere near enough money to allow me to dedicate myself to training full time.”

ENDS

PANEL OUT: Bryan Keane – triathlon

Currently based in Spain, ex photographer turned full time triathlete Bryan Keane has overcome some serious setbacks to get himself race fit for the Olympics. Last September the Corkman was hit by a car while out cycling, breaking his kneecap in the process.

“My season has been affected as a result – I’m starting a little late but I hope to be race fit for the end of April or beginning of May. I should be fine,” he says.

Keane races Olympic distance triathlons, which involves swimming 1500 metres, cycling 40 kilometres and then running 10 kilometres. Considered one of the most demanding and difficult of Olympic events, it requires special determination to be in with a chance of winning.

“It’s pretty hardcore. The International Triathlon Union is our governing body and we race a circuit in the same way that tennis or motorsport has its circuits. It’s separate to the ironman brand – we’re more short course than long course athletes.”

Keane has been taking part in the triathlon for just three years, but has previously both run and cycled for Ireland and had competed in swimming. He made the choice to switch to triathlon when he realised he could combine his abilities in that discipline and reach a higher level than in the constituent sports.

“I knew what I could achieve within running and within cycling – I had brought myself to an international standard in those fields and I knew I couldn’t really make a living from them. I always wanted to do triathlon so I decided to go for it. The training routine is pretty full on though – I’m currently training 25 to 30 hours a week, roughly broken down in four sessions a day.”

“I swim six days a week, and cycle between 25 to 40 kilometres a week. Each athlete has weak points and strong points but in triathlon you’re only as good as your weakest event. You might spend more time in the pool or on your bike depending on where you know you need more work.”

Keane is training full time and says it’s not really possible to train at this level and also hold down a job. “It’s a full time endeavour  so sports council funding is extremely important. I’m relying on funding and I have some good sponsorship. We get good TV and media coverage for our events, so that makes it worthwhile to sponsor us, and the prize money is good,” he says.

“It costs between €35,000 to €40,000 – it’s expensive, but not compared to sailing or horse riding. Kinetica, a nutrition brand, has been very good to me not just with financial aid but also in lending me a nutritionist. I’m also sponsored by a bike shop in Ireland, so I do all right,” says Keane.

ENDS

PANEL OUT: Annalise Murphy, Sailing.

For most people sailing is a sedate and relaxing hobby, but not for 21 year old Olympic hopeful Annalise Murphy. Racing laser radial dinghies is a passion that has lead her to the top of her discipline and to within reach of qualification for the 2012 games.

Murphy recently cracked the top ten world ranking list for the first time, after coming fourth in her event in the latest round of the International Sailing Federation’s World Cup in Miami. Now ranked ninth in the world, she has deferred finishing her science degree in UCD to pursue her Olympic dream.

“There are eighteen months to the games and that seems like both a long time and no time at all to me. I’ve basically been sailing full time for the last two years and the time has just flown by. It’s gone so quick I can’t believe it,” she says.

“I sail laser radial, a small dinghy used for women’s Olympic class racing. It’s basically one person in a boat with one sail. I’ve been sailing all my life, since I was three or four and I’ve been sailing radial since 2005. I come from a sailing family, and actually my mum Cathy sailed in the Olympics in 1988 so it’s a family tradition now.”

“It’s a passion, something I’ve grown up doing and I love it. It’s become harder as it’s no longer just a sport I do for fun – I’m doing it as a full time job and that’s obviously different.“

The Rathfarnham based woman has clocked up some very respectable wins in the time she’s been sailing full time. In July 2009, she became the first Irish sailor to win a Europa Cup event in 13 years and later that year at her first world championship as a senior in Japan, she won the under-21 world title. In 2010 she picked up wins in Brisbane and Melbourne.

“Everything I do every day is geared towards getting as good as possible in advance of the 2012 Olympics. My parents and some family friends are covering most of the bills, and I get a grant from the Irish Sports Council because I was eighth at the world championships in 2009, and that makes a huge difference. But sailing is a hugely expensive sport,” she says.

“We have so much more costs than everyone else – an athlete just needs a new pair of trainers every now and again but we need a new boat, a new set of sails for every race, and that costs €500 each time – it all adds up to quite a lot. You can have corporate sponsorship but it’s hard to get.”

ENDS

Article: Who owns the Arctic?

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The Golden Circle
Published in The Sunday Business Post on February 13th, 2011, by Alex Meehan

In 2007,Russian politician and polar Explorer Artur Chilingarov planted a Titanium flag on the ocean bed below the North Pole, in an attempt to claim the Arctic for his native land. When he flew back to Moscow, Chilingarov was hailed as a hero, and was welcomed by supporters waving Russian flags and brandishing bottles of champagne.

“The Arctic always was Russian, and it will remain Russian,” he said. ‘‘We are happy that we placed a Russian flag on the ocean bed, where not a single person has ever been, and I don’t give a damn what some foreign individuals think about that.”

At the time, the act was widely dismissed as a stunt designed to boost Chilingarov’s profile in the run-up to Russian elections, and was dismissed by politicians such as Canadian foreign minister Peter Mackay, who told reporters: ‘‘This isn’t the 15th century. You can’t go around the world and just plant flags and say, ‘We’re claiming this territory’.”

Four years on, Chilingarov’s actions look less like a PR gambit and more like the beginning of what is likely to be a race to clearly define just who owns the Arctic and – crucially – the natural resources to be found there. If estimates are to be believed, there are vast quantities of oil and gas in the far north.

And while in the past this oil and Gas was inaccessible, climate change is now opening up areas of the Arctic for drilling during the summer months, potentially providing a lucrative source of energy for whoever can access it.

‘‘The sea ice is melting at an alarming rate, to the point where the Northwest Passage and the northern sea route are both now open in late summer,” says Michael Byers, professor and holder of the Canada Research Chair in global politics and international Law at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.

‘‘That is a dramatic change in terms of the access that is now available in the Arctic for shipping, and also for oil companies looking for oil and gas.

The access has improved enormously as a consequence of the Arctic being on the front line of climate change. With that access, coupled with the fact that humanity is running out of easy sources of oil and gas, there is a major push to explore for and develop Arctic energy.”

In his book, Who Owns The Arctic, Byers examined some of the geopolitical difficulties likely to emerge as a result of these developments. Take the Northwest Passage, for example.

For most of recorded history, this waterway to the north of Canada was thought to be a myth, and when it was finally discovered in the early 20th century, it was found to be impassable due to ice.

However, in recent years, climate change has contributed to it melting to the point where it is increasingly passable in the summer months. As this route becomes more navigable, freight companies are eyeing up the potential to shave 7,000 kilometres off the trip from the Pacific to the Atlantic oceans, avoiding the need to go through the Suez and Panama canals.

All well and good, but Canada claims that this is an internal waterway, while many other countries, including the US, contend that it’s an international strait.

Meanwhile, the petrochemical industry – which is unable to get to most of the world’s unharvested oil and gas because it’s located in territories controlled by nationalist governments – is casting its eye north.

‘‘The international oil companies – Shell, Chevron, BP, Exxon Mobile – are being driven to the Arctic, among other places, to try to scrape the last drops of oil out of the barrel. But it’s not just because of climate change,” says Charlie Kronick, senior climate advisor with Greenpeace UK.

‘‘The reality is that the days of oil being easy to get to for these companies is long gone – what’s there is basically under the control of national oil companies in areas like Venezuela, Russia and the Middle East.

It’s very difficult for these international companies to get into those regions, where the bulk of what’s called conventional oil is still located.

As a result, they are being driven to places where it’s either expensive or environmentally difficult, or both, to find oil. The Arctic is the perfect example of one of these places.”

Opinions differ on just how much oil and gas is to be found in the Arctic, depending on the methodologies used to arrive at the numbers, but there is widespread consensus that the quantities involved are huge.

‘‘The most systematic estimate is from the United States Geological Survey, which is updated all the time, and it says that there are between 90 and 150 billion barrels of oil and a large quantity of gas in the Arctic,” says Manouchehr Takin, a senior petroleum upstream analyst with the Centre for Global Energy Studies.

‘‘That’s based on the geology, nearby exploratory wells that have been drilled, seismic activity and so on.

The Russians have done the same kinds of surveys, but their estimates are larger – they talk about something like 300 to 500 billion barrels of oil yet to be discovered in the area.

‘‘Either way, we’re talking about a few hundred billion barrels of oil and large quantities of gas. To put that into perspective, the reserves of Kuwait are 90 billion barrels, and Iraq has around 135 billion barrels.

These are huge quantities and the potential Is massive, so of course oil companies are going to be interested in looking for it.”

The issue o ownership and sovereignty in the Arctic is at once complex and simple. As the entire region comprises frozen ocean, rather than land, it’s governed by the 1982 UN Convention on the law of the sea.

This convention gives ownership of any natural resources present on or under the sea bed within 200 nautical miles of a country’s shores to that country.

In addition, countries on the edge of a continent can extend their claims by up to 350 nautical miles from shore to areas that they can show are extensions of the continental shelf.

‘‘That document has been ratified by four of the five Arctic Ocean countries and is accepted as customary law by the fifth – the US. It assigns without any controversy 99 per cent of the hydrocarbon-bearing areas – the areas that are commonly believed to be rich in oil and gas,” says Byers.

‘‘When people say they’d like to see a comprehensive Arctic treaty created and modelled on the Antarctic treaty, they overlook the point that the Arctic is essentially an ocean and we already have a comprehensive treaty for dealing with ownership of oceans.

The Arctic is frozen sea; increasingly less frozen than it once was, but sea nonetheless,” says Byers.

‘‘The real issue is over the continental shelves. Because they were once forests and dinosaurs, this is where the hydrocarbons are located. So the disputes that have arisen lately are about the fine detail of ownership – nobody can actually claim territory they’re not entitled to.”

One area that’s not so cut and dried is the Lomonosov Ridge, an underwater ridge that crosses the Arctic Ocean between the New Siberian Islands and Ellesmere Island.

Russia is currently collecting data to support its claim that this underwater area is an extension of the Asian continental shelf, while Canada and Denmark claim it is an extension of the North American continental shelf.

The country that manages to prove its claims conclusively, in front of the UN’s Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf, will gain control of a vast amount of seafloor resources in the central portion of the Arctic Ocean.

‘‘The result is that the push is now on to collect science which can be plugged into this legal formula to produce a result showing where the respective jurisdictions lie.

That’s the hidden good news story here – very wise diplomats foresaw issues like this and concluded a multilateral treaty back in 1982,” says Byers.

‘‘The multinational oil companies don’t want anyone grabbing territory, they want stability.

They’re mostly agnostic in terms of which country’s territory they actually drill in.

They have no allegiance to any particular nation-state, but they do want legal certainty and they’re the ones who have been pushing for dispute resolution, because they won’t drill in a disputed zone.”

For many observers of the Arctic situation, it’s not a matter of how oil and gas can be extracted, but whether it should be drilled for at all.

Kronick points out that the Arctic is one of the last remaining pristine environments on the planet, and the impact of an oil spill or leak in there would be even more catastrophic than elsewhere.

‘‘This is true for a number of reasons.

One is that it’s an important breeding ground for whales, halibut and cod, so the impact locally would be massive.

However, even though the ice is less pervasive than it was ten or 20 years ago, the window of operations in the Arctic is still only between three to five months in the summer.

For the rest of the year, because of sea ice and icebergs, it’s impossible to work or drill there,” he says.

‘‘This means that if an oil company experienced a leak at the end of a drilling period, that leak could be gushing oil into the sea under the ice for anywhere between seven and nine months. It would be an immeasurable catastrophe, not just in environmental terms but also in economic terms for those companies, because they could never afford to clean it up.”

Greenpeace argues that the environmental consequences of a spill in the Arctic would be far more serious than in warmer seas such as the Gulf of Mexico.

The organisation points out that the impact of the Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska is still being felt over 20 years later.

But according to Kronick, even people who aren’t concerned about the environment should care about this issue. ‘‘If you couldn’t care less about the Arctic, you should still be worried about the extra cost that drilling there or in other environmentally sensitive places will involve,” he says.

‘‘The problem with working in areas like The Arctic is that it inevitably drives the price of oil and gas up and, as we all know, when oil prices get to a certain level, they tend to tip consuming economies around the world into global recession.

If you invest in any of these big international oil companies – and people with a pension or insurance policy probably already do, because most of these policies are backed by funds invested in petrochemical portfolios – then you should know that this kind of exploration is very risky.”

According to Greenpeace, activity in the Arctic can only serve to keep a dying industry artificially alive, and the sooner global economies move away from fossil fuels, the better. ‘‘It might not happen for five, ten or even 20 years, but the move away from fossil fuels is going to happen.

The reality is that, the higher the price of existing oil and gas, the more likely it is that economies will say it’s no longer worth the trouble.

The move to other forms of power will leave these investments looking less attractive,” says Kronick.

‘‘You only have to look at what happened last year in the Gulf of Mexico to see the kicking that BP took there. But it’s not just BP – all the major companies are involved in these risky areas, and I think that increasingly the public is alert to the risks they are running, and are aware of what the implications are for them.

The oil age may be coming to an end, but there are plenty of interests competing for the last scraps.”

It’s certainly true that the major oil companies are painfully aware of the cost in environmental, financial and PR terms of spills and accidents. BP recently reported a loss of €3.5 billion for 2010 – its first annual loss in more than two decades – as a direct result of the Gulf of Mexico spill.

The company estimates that the final total cost of cleaning up the spill will be close to €30 billion.

‘‘The environmental story is really a story that has followed the oil companies throughout their history,” says Manouchehr Takin. ‘‘In the late 19th and early 20th century, the oil companies were largely ignorant of the damage they caused, but in the last 50 years, thanks to environmental activists like Greenpeace and others, public opinion has changed and has put a lot of pressure on these companies.

‘‘The Gulf of Mexico was obviously an accident, but no matter how careful the companies are, accidents occur. It’s like flying – we may have a tragic airline accident from time to time, but do we stop flying altogether?

No, we don’t. ‘‘The enquiry that was held after the Piper Alpha accident in the North Sea in 1988 made many recommendations that resulted in significant improvements in safety and regulation. But activity in the North Sea continued after that disaster, both from the British and Norwegian sides.

That will be the same in the Gulf of Mexico, and it will be the same in the Arctic.”

History of the Arctic

The Arctic Circle’s infamous Northwest Passage confounded explorers for hundreds of years until Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen successfully navigated it in 1903.

Once thought a myth, the route offered a potentially invaluable way to shorten the sea voyage from Europe to the Far East and many ill fated expeditions were launched throughout the 18th and 19th centuries to find the route.

When Amundsen eventually proved it was real, he claimed a place in the history books, but at the time he made it through, the passage was commercially useless for shipping purposes – it was mostly frozen and where navigable it was too shallow for shipping.

However since then, the effects of climate change have resulted in the passage opening up during the summer months and in recent years it’s become increasingly usable.

Much of the history of arctic exploration is also the history of scientific discovery and of the urge for mankind to push back the boundaries of its knowledge of the natural world. However many of the expeditions that set out to chart the arctic and locate the North Pole were doomed from the outset.

One of the most famous yet ill fated expeditions to attempt the Northwest Passage was that of Sir John Franklin in 1845. He departed England with two Royal Navy vessels and a crew of 128 but was never seen again, despite over 40 expeditions subsequently launched to attempt to locate him.

It wasn’t until 1857 that evidence emerged to show his ship had become stuck in the ice near King William Island for two years. The crew seem to have abandoned it and attempted to walk to safety but none survived.

As for the North Pole itself, few areas of exploration have been as hotly contested as the claim to have been the first to the pole. American Robert Peary claimed to have been the first to reach it on April 6th, 1909, but his claim is now widely discredited.

Equipped with dogsleds and three separate support crews, he made record time travelling 250 kilometres in the last five days of his trip but he did so without witnesses. Modern explorers, including Olympic skiers using modern equipment, have been unable to equal this feat and in 1988 the New York Times published a correction of its initial report on Peary’s expedition, discrediting him some 79 years later.

Roald Amundsen notched up another Arctic first when he became the first person, along with his American sponsor Lincoln Ellsworth, to sight the North Pole from an airship in 1926, but the first people to have reached the north pole without any doubt were the crew of a soviet aircraft under the command of Alexander Kuznetsov who landed near the pole and walked up to it in 1948.

Since then, the North Pole has continued to exert an attraction to explorers and record seekers, with further expeditions taking place regularly after 1948. Explorers got there by a variety of means — in 1958, a US submarine sailed to the north pole under the icepack, while in 1959 a second submarine actually surfaced there through the ice.

In 1968, American Ralph Plaisted became the first person to reach the North Pole overland via snowmobile, while in 1969 UK explorer Wally Herbert became the first man to get there on foot and by dogsled.

The last significant North Pole record to have been clinched happened in 1995, when a pair of explorers from Canada and Russia, Richard Weber and Misha Malakhov became the first people to get there and back on foot and with no outside help in the form of dog teams, aircraft or resupplies. No one has equalled this feat since.

Arctic facts and climate change

Unlike the Antartic, which is a landmass surrounded by sea, the Arctic is not actually solid land, it’s a sea surrounded by landmasses, albeit a sea which is mostly frozen.

The smallest of the world’s five great oceans, the Arctic is around 14 million square kilometres in size, or approximately one and a half times the size of the United States. The bulk of the surface is covered by a perennially drifting polar icepack which averages around three metres thick which floats free in the summer but more than doubles in size and extends to meet the surrounding landmasses in winter.

Bordered by eight countries – Canada, Russia, Greenland, the US, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Iceland — the Arctic is particularly vulnerable to the effects of global warming, with the result that significant parts of the arctic ice pack have already melted. Climate models predict that Arctic shrinkage could contribute to a substantial rise in sea levels worldwide.

As to when this might happen, current estimates predict the total disappearance of Arctic sea ice in the summer at anywhere from 2040 to 2100, with one notable 2007 survey concluding that summer ice loss could occur as early as 2029.

Already the early signs of this are effecting local wildlife, with a recent study linking decreases in polar bear litter sizes with reductions in the amount of sea ice in the arctic. Polar bears move from ice flow to ice flow, feeding on seals during the eight coldest months of the year, and fast on land during the four warmer months. With less ice available to them, there’s less time for them to eat and store food.

The study, published in the biology journal Nature Communications, predicted this trend will continue over the next few decades, potentially threatening the survival of the species in parts of the Arctic.

“The climate has changed before but always on a geological timescale. But now the Arctic is changing on human time – over the space of a human lifetime,” says Michael Byers of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.

“I’ve seen it myself. I’ve been to a national park in Canada, on Balfin island, in each of the last four summers and in that time I’ve seen virtually an entire glacier disappear. This is a piece of ice that’s existed for thousands of years and has literally melted away in just four. It’s staggering.”

“There is an additional factor at work here and that has to be the human hand. There’s no debate here and I regularly tell people that every arctic issue is connected to climate change. It is one thing to learn from temperature gauges and remote sensing satellites that climate change is accelerating beyond all scientific expectations, and another thing to see the change unfold before your eyes,” says Byers.

Detox redux . . .

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WordPress has an automatically generated theme that kicks in when someone views a WP blog using a mobile phone or other device.

It overrides whatever theme the blog owner has specified, in order to format the text and images on the blog to make it look better on a mobile device.

Weirdly it also includes advertisements, the content of which the blog owner doesn’t seem to have any control over. They’re randomly inserted in by WordPress/Google Ads, based on the content of the blog entry.

Earlier today a reader who looked at my blog through their iphone sent me this image.

It appears that Google ads is not without a sense of humour.