The Gathered Table: A Taste of Home, is a beautiful 160-page hardback cookbook featuring a collection of 55 recipes from across Ireland’s food world, with contributions from bakers and butchers, farmers and food champions, producers, shopkeepers and chefs. Each contributor has supplied their favourite recipe to cook at home, the one that takes them back to happy times and celebrates the relationship between nurturing food and the community of home, wherever your home may be.
The Gathered Table: A Taste of Home was originated and compiled by Gather & Gather Ireland and edited by Kristin Jensen from boutique Irish publishing house Nine Bean Rows. It is priced at €30 with all proceeds going to Peter McVerry Trust.
The list of contributors reads like a roll call of the best and brightest in the Irish food world. Chefs include Anna Haugh, Aishling Moore, Gaz Smith, Kwanghi Chan, Darina Allen, Neven Maguire, Domini Kemp, JP McMahon, Danni Barry, Aoife Noonan and more. You’ll also find recipes from John and Sally McKenna, Georgina Campbell, broadcaster and writer Suzanne Campbell, as well as Gráinne Mullins from Grá Chocolates, Siobhán Ní Gharbhith from St Tola, Pat Whelan from James Whelan Butchers, Aisling and Michael Flanagan from Velvet Cloud and Eva Pau from Asia Market among others. Recipes include a classic beef and Guinness pie, comforting stews and casseroles, a decadent sticky coffee pudding, treacle tart, porridge bread and a simple but delicious mac ‘n’ cheese.
The book also features some truly inspirational stories directly from those who Peter McVerry has helped out of homelessness. Its publication coincides with the fortieth anniversary of the Peter McVerry Trust, a national housing and homeless charity committed to reducing homelessness and the harm caused by substance misuse and social disadvantage. Last year Peter McVerry Trust supported over 12,000 people in towns and cities across the country and gave over 900 people the key to their own home.
Pat Doyle, CEO of Peter McVerry Trust said, “Peter McVerry Trust is honoured to be part of this fantastic project. Gather & Gather are long-standing supporters of our organisation and we cannot thank them enough. Home means something special to many of us. For the people we work with in Peter McVerry Trust, home means safety, security and independence. Included in this book, alongside the wonderful recipes, are stories from some of the people we have supported out of homelessness – what their new home means to them and how it has changed their lives. Buying this book – for yourself or as a gift – is a fantastic way to help people impacted by homelessness across Ireland.”
Pauline Cox, Managing Director of Gather & Gather Ireland elaborates on the initiative saying, “Mark Anderson, our culinary director, brought me the idea of creating a cookbook back in 2021. We had been involved with the Peter McVerry Trust for several years and had been looking for a project that would make an impact in supporting their work. While a cookbook’s role in raising awareness of homelessness may not be apparent at first glance, it becomes more evident when you consider the relationship between our food and our security and comfort. For me, a great cookbook should do more than teach you how to cook a dish – it should carry real meaning, reflecting memories of people or places. The Gathered Table: A Taste of Home does all these things, in aid of a very good cause. We hope you enjoy reading and using the book just as much as we enjoyed compiling it.”
Kristin Jensen, publisher, Nine Bean Rows adds, “There are a few things that connect everyone, everywhere. Food is one of them. Home is another. This is powerfully illustrated in The Gathered Table, which we are proud to be publishing for such a good cause.”
A gorgeous coffee table book as well as a recipe book for all levels of cooking, and photography is by award-winning photographer Katie Quinn. The Gathered Table: A Taste of Home, €30, is available from 30th March in bookshops and independent retailers across the country and online at ninebeanrowsbooks.com