After a good dinner one can forgive anybody, even one's own relations
"Après un bon dîner, on n'en veut plus à personne, même pas à sa propre famille"

 

Oscar Wilde    

 
 

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!

 
 
 
 

Frédéric Rauser
Cultural Counsellor
French Embassy in Ireland

Philippe Milloux
Director / Délégué Général
Alliance Française Dublin

 
 
 
 
2016 Writers
from
France & Ireland
 

 
Principal Funders:
 
 
 
Sponsors & Partners:
 
 
 
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