Alan Fitzmaurice - Down to earth with a passion for chocolate
Alan’s passion for handmade artisan chocolates is highly infectious!
Alan Fitzmaurice’ chocolate experience was one of the discoveries of our Sligo Food Tours in 2019. He comes from a big family with a background in home baking, foraging for berries and mushrooms, hunting and fishing nurtured by his parents while growing up in Roscommon and he has not lost touch with his roots.
Since 2012 Alan works as an executive head chef in “The Kitchen”, the Glasshouse hotels restaurant and slowly put it on the culinary scene for excellent food. His unassuming personality belies the thrive and passion of a chef in constant development. His approach is to take classic dishes and add his own individual twist, using local, seasonal and foraged produce whenever possible. His favourite dish is Turbot with crab meat, seaweed tuille and hibiscus flowers.
Artisan chocolate is his real passion though which he follows often after work hours creating fabulous chocolates for all gusts at the Glasshouse hotel. He recently won a Gold Medal at Catex (an event for Irish Food Service Suppliers) for his handcrafted chocolates. Throughout 2020 Alan and his team did perfect their products and just in time for Christmas launched Elements of Chocolate - artisan hand made chcocolates. www.eoc.ie
Here is Alan Fitzmaurice uncovered
What is your favourite food? Simple food, cooked by somebody else!
Finish the sentence: A chef is consistent.
The country you travel for food: I love France, but I think more and more Ireland.
Three things you always have in your larder/fridge? Bacon lardons, cornichons and dark chocolate 55%.
What is your most used gadget? Infrared thermometer
Do you read cookbooks and which one do you come back to? I am re-reading the first River Cottage Cookbook and I have a new chocolate book, but ( sssshhh) I can’t talk about it yet.
Who is your inspiration (not necessarily from the food world): Sean Brock
What are you currently listening to? A bit of U2 on vinyl.
Something people don’t know about you? I used to love the Housemartins Band.
What will be hot in 2020? Zero zero food waste at home, get the most out of your food bill, using up whatever you have in the fridge!