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Cooking can be
hard work! This year’s festival will include references
to all manner of saucepans, stoves, mess tins and pots,
not to mention whose turn it is to scrub them clean
afterwards… Expect a few surprises on the menu as our
guests evoke the pleasures of food, its preparation,
ingestion and digestion, although we promise, hand on
heart, no indigestion. What could be worse than being
obliged to gulp down rich sauces and sweet delicacies,
creating a thirst which must be quenched by excessively
heady wines? With literature you can avoid all that,
remaining unburdened of belly and sharp of mind. An
intellectual approach, certainly, but one offering
plenty to savour, and undoubtedly more gentle on
delicate constitutions. A literary festival on the theme
of cuisine allows the participant to avoid any risk of
bloating, while doing wonders for the figure. And as you
will see, the subject of food will be tackled from every
angle, from the most trivial to the most noble: those
quivering taste buds of memory famously aroused by a
madeleine, for example.
Yes, there will be plenty of talk
about eating, getting one’s fill, taking sustenance,
even feasting. While we may hear of grub being scoffed
down, we will also witness a more refined approach,
where delight is taken in the taste and texture of words
and food alike. If it has long been true that we no
longer eat simply to survive, our era has witnessed the
rise of a new art of living inspired by the great chefs.
Eating well is today synonymous with keeping healthy,
taking care of oneself, combatting the ageing process.
The elixir of youth has finally been discovered… on our
plates! How did we not know about this before! Today we
go to great lengths to reap the benefits of wholesome
fare. Organic produce speared to our forks, we seek to
chase out the evil fats clogging our arteries, cursing
devious carbohydrates while celebrating healthy eating
as an act of redemption.
For as long as it has existed, literature has looked to
our plates and all they contain. Was it not Epicurus
himself who wrote, “Let us be quick to give into
temptation, lest it should disappear”. With that in
mind, we can only recommend that you come along to the
events organised this year; afterwards, it will be too
late. You will not regret it. Our esteemed guests will
employ their texts and talks to conjure up the most
refined flavours, the most delicate aromas. They will
offer you a privileged tasting of some of their finest
paragraphs, amid great banqueting and telling of tales.
During the three days of the
Festival, food and language will thus be blended in
accordance with our mouth-watering recipe. Fourteen
writers representing a variety of cultures and languages
will invite you to share their passion for the pleasures
of the table. Discussions, readings, book sales,
signings, and for the first time this year, performances
both culinary and literary, will ensure that there is
something to everyone’s taste.
Jointly organised by the Dublin Alliance Française and
the Cultural Service of the French Embassy, the Festival
owes its continued success to the precious partners and
sponsors who have offered their support and whose
generosity we gratefully acknowledge. We are extremely
thankful to Foras na Gaeilge, Poetry Ireland, the Irish
Writers Centre, Ireland Literature Exchange, as well as
a number of French and Irish businesses, with a very
special mention to the French laboratories Servier Monde
and the company CRH.
We are also grateful to the media who have helped
promote the festival with extensive coverage.
And of course we wish to warmly welcome all the writers,
without whom this wonderful event would be a poor
repast. We have no doubt that they will make this
seventeenth year of the festival another delicious
treat! |
