Kate Ryan is a multi-award winning food writer and founder of Flavour.ie dedicated to championing Irish Food.

Originally from Bristol in South West England, a city famed for its restaurants and 18^th Century covered market, Kate moved to Ireland in 2005 and quickly recognised Cork as her hometown’s gastronomic equal with its exceptional restaurants, famous covered English Market and historic trading links to Bristol for exotic foods, spices and butter…

AWARDS

• 2024 – Local Ireland Media Awards: Sustainability Journalist of the Year
• 2023 – Blas na hEireann: Irish Food Producers’ Champion
• 2023 – Listowel Food Fair: Food Storyteller of the Year (inaugural award)
• 2022 – Irish Food Writing Awards: Food Writing (judged by Colman Andrews, Saveur)

ACADEMIA

• 2024 – MA Irish Food Studies and Irish Foodways (First Class Honours) (first in Ireland to receive this qualification)
• 2023 – Oxford Symposium on Food & Cookery – presented paper on the social and culutral history of blood as food in Ireland. This paper was subsequently selected for inclusion in the Proceedings published in 2024.
• 2021 – Postgraduate Diploma in Irish Food Culture (First Class Honours)
• 2016 – Postgraduate Certificate in Creative Writing (Food Writing) (Distinction)

BOOKS

• 2024 – Cook, by Graham Herterich. Contributing author – “Sticky Fingers and Jelly-Smacked Lips”.
• 2023 – Proceedings of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery, 2023 – Rites & Rituals. Contributing author – “Perfectly Civilised and Proper – the social and cultural history of blood as food in Ireland.”
• 2023 – Scoop “What is Irish Food” (edition 1). Contributing author – “The Evolution of Corn in Irish Food Culture – from famine relief to tortillas.”
• 2017 – Artisan Food Guide to West Cork – from Bandon to Beara.

PROFESSIONAL BIO

Kate writes regularly for The Echo, BBC, Irish Examiner, Food & Wine Magazine (Ireland), The Opinion Magazine, and Taste Talks. Her writing has also appeared in Scoop Food Magazine, Vittles, TheTaste.ie, Irish Foodie Magazine, Headstuff.org and TheJournal.ie. She has been featured in the Irish Examiner, Irish Times, Irish Independent and The Guardian.

In 2023, Kate delivered a paper at the prestigious Oxford Food Symposium entitled, “Perfectly Civilised and Proper”: The Social and Cultural History of Blood as Food in Ireland.

Kate was commissioned by A Taste of West Cork Food Festival to author the “Artisan Food Guide” published in June 2017, described as the bible of West Cork Food.

Her blog, The Flavour Files, began in 2012 with a focus on great local produce, seasonality, wild and foraged food and craft drinks of all kinds, and recipes that illustrate how artisan foods are as at home in our kitchens as they are on a restaurant menu.

This is still very much at the core of The Flavour Files, but it has also expanded to include other writing, sometimes about food and sometimes about things that aren’t food. Today, Kate uses her blog to explore long-form blog posts as a solution to publishing writings that are unbound by word-count or commercial interest and aim to be an alternative voice for Irish food writing. This writing can be supported by you through Ko-fi and all support is appreciated.

Kate is a Member of the Irish Food Writers Guild since 2019, was Secretary between 2020 and 2023, and is now Treasurer. The Irish Food Writers’ Guild was formed in 1990 to promote high professional standards of knowledge and practice among writers about food, nutrition, food history and other allied matters and to assist in the forging of links and networks between professionals in the food industry.

Kate is also a member of Writing.ie in the Emerging Writers category.

Kate is proud to be a judge of many years standing with Blas na hEireann and the Irish Quality Food Awards, and has also been a judge for Food & Wine Magazine’s Restaurant of the Year Awards, and National Dairy Awards. She holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Irish Food Culture and a Post Graduate Certificate in Creative Food Writing from University College Cork.

Kate is a third generation GIYer. She has a small garden where she grows a variety of vegetables, fruits, herbs and flowers to compliment the regions wonderful seasonal larder, and is embarking on a new growing project, Flavour HQ, on a small piece of land near her home.