Paul, my year 2017

From my eyes anyway it was an eventful year with huge highs and lows throughout the year. Both in the kitchen and in my own personal life. I look back and hope yo share with you through my eyes the year 2017.

I suppose starting at the start with a busy month of work and a small amount of foraging to be honest about it February to April of the year I would rather forget to be perfectly honest about it. The best part of these months was starting a new job in late March with Marcus in Nick’s restaurant in Kilorglin, it was a great experience for me I loved every minute of it there while my personal life is rather park that and forget it. Leading from that a sense of despair amongst other emotions that I don’t do so well with then May happened and which saw the opening of Croi and the arrival of the gangsters into the real world and there is where the year really takes a turn, June and July as much as I try are a blur a completewhirlwind adventure with the 2 best men that you could ask for in Kevin and Noel “consummate professionals as always” (thinking about it now I’m laughing). Kevins dancing to the Spotify and Noel’s attempt to dance,(baby groot you legend). August saw the rose festival and an emotional weekend for me where I had am absolute disaster and would have seen the door and P45, had I not been in the position I hold in the restaurant, recovering from this seemed harder that it was. September saw the food festival and a busy few weeks for us which continued October, and food on the edge and a trip to Galway and the inspiration from done of the best chefs in Europe and the world, while in the restaurant we had expected to be “quiet”, like sbow in July that didn’t happen as ever we pushed on inside and out of the restaurant from both a service and a foraging point of view I had to look a bit harder to find different items on our menu, but in my search I stumbled across other patches of something else, (silver linings). That brings us nicely to December and the haze that ensued, a difficult time in our house anyway,, as I’m sure in many households across the country Christmas wasn’t the same without someone, yet the tales of the past bring tears and smiles laughter and silence of thought and wishful thinking.

So here we are at the beginning of January once more and this year sees pending nuptials for my fiancee Jenny and I, amongst other plans in the restaurant and the foraging seems like it’s going to be a great, and looking forward to the year growing as much as I can and foraging through the seasons once more with more of an eye on the preservation of herbs fruits and vegatable while hoping to increase my knowledge of edible and foraging of mushrooms.

Here’s to 2018 let’s see how it goes. Wild food to the forefront of my agenda anyway.

Follow my journey @chefpaulc on twitter and Instagram and the restaurant on all social media platforms @croitralee