The Man behind the Belly

Hello everyone and welcome to my blog.

The reason I have started this blog is I have an unbounding love for food and wine that I want to share with the world. Food has been a major factor in my life, and yes I hear you say well duh of  course everyone needs to eat but I have made eating in to an art form however. Its been a truly love hate relationship at times but we always make up. I have gone from a thin man trying to escape a fat man's body, and now fat man trying to escape a thin man's body.  I am a 26 year old male who comes from a very foody background, my grandfather was a baker and his mother was a cook, my own father is a confectioner with his brother being chef. Naturally I felt as I got older all I wanted is to become a chef and emulate the greats, Escoffier, Bocuse, Ducasse, Blanc, and Floyd. In fact Keith Floyd was my inspiration, he made cooking a joy to behold, he had such finesse but at the same time was rough and ready whilst swigging on a bottle of his favourite wine.

I followed my dream on my 16th birthday, where I joined the Limerick Inn, where I started as simple kitchen hand and junior ( very junior ) commis chef. I enjoyed every minute of it from where I began as simply preparing egg mixes for scrambled eggs to finally commanding my own section as the Starters Chef. The following year having completed my Leaving Cert I decided to go to Limerick Institute of Technology and enroll in Professional Cookery. As part of my new adventure I needed a new part time role, and I moved to the Limerick Ryan as their Starters Chef on weekends .This was an introduction to a different world of cookery everything seemed to be like working on a production line, simply firing out meals with no regard for finesse or room for creativity.

Fortunately for me as part of my course I needed to find employment for industry placement, and moved on from the Limerick Ryan to Manna in Limerick City.  I unfortunately ended my food career after one week in Manna. Throughout my time in Manna, my one week felt like I was living a nightmare, I would start at 1.30pm and finish at 12am on £2 an hour, arguments with the head chef as I was not to his liking, and yes I may have quit on a whim when I look back but I think I lost my desire to work in a kitchen after working there, but I certainly did not lose my desire to cook and enjoy food.

The purpose of my blog is for me to express my love for food. I still enjoy cooking so much, so I intend on using this place for my recipes and pictures. Also I want to use my blog for my restaurant reviews, I like to eat out quite a lot and I feel I need to write down my reviews of restaurants which I will incorporate with Menu Pages. At the same time I enjoy drinking wine and although I am no connoisseur but I do think I am starting to learn how to enjoy wines of the world and will be reviewing any of the wines I drink.

So I hope you enjoy my posts, pic's, reviews and videos.

Thanks for reading

Will