World’s best chef is coming to Galway

Italian chef Massimo Bottura, whose Osteria Francescana in Modena was recently voted the number one restaurant in the world, is coming to Galway to speak at the second Food On The Edge symposium in October.

Bottura, whose restaurant topped the San Pellegrino World's 50 Best Restaurants rankings earlier this month, is one of 50 internationally renowned chefs who will take part in the event on October 24th and 25th, the theme for which is The Future of Food.

Before then, Bottura will be heading to the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, to open an anti-waste restaurant, stocked with leftover and unwanted food, in the favelas. The project echoes Refettorio Ambrosiano, which he opened in Milan during last year's Expo, to feed lunch to schoolchldren and dinner to refugees and homeless and disadvantaged locals, made with food that would otherwise have been discarded.

A former theatre became a 96-seat canteen where 10 tonnes of food waste from the Expo was transformed, with the help of some high profile chef colleagues including Alain Ducasse, René Redzepi and Daniel Humm – and Galway chef Jess Murphy – into 150 free meals served each day for five months.

Also included in the line-up of speakers at Food On The Edge is Pierre Koffmann, the French-born, London-based chef who earned three Michelin stars for his La Tante Claire restaurant in London, and more recently returned to the rustic cooking of his Gascon roots at Koffmann's at the Berkeley hotel. The chef, who is celebrating his 50th year in the kitchen, will publish his first new book in more than 20 years, Classic Koffmann, in October.

From New York come Gabrielle Hamilton, chef/owner at Prune restaurant and author of the critically acclaimed memoir, Blood, Bones & Butter; Amanda Cohen, chef/owner at the vegetable-centric Dirt Candy, and Daniel Burns, formerly head pastry chef at Noma in Copenhagen, now leading the kitchen at Luksus in Brooklyn.

From the UK, the big names that will be taking to the podium include the Yorkshire chef Michael O'Hare, who has a Michelin star at his Leeds restaurant The Man Behind The Curtain, the website for which informs prospective diners "we are fully booked for 2016". O'Hare has appeared on TV shows MasterChef and Great British Menu, earning a perfect score of 10 from judge Marcus Wareing for a dish he called "My Mother is Single and Looking for a Well-Dressed Man".

Irish chefs who will speak at the event include Dylan McGrath, whose Taste at Rustic restaurant hosted today's official launch of the event, Robin Gill, who has three restaurants in London, and Danni Barry, who holds a Michelin star for her cooking at Deane's EIPIC in Belfast.

The event was conceived by Irish Times Magazine columnist JP McMahon and more than 450 delegates are expected to attend this year. Tickets are now on sale, with an early-booking price of €195 for one day and €350 for two days, if booked before July 31st (full price tickets €225/€400). See foodontheedge.ie