Taste Ireland's Hidden Heartlands with the "Irish Stew Podcast" as hosts John Lee and Martin Nutty kick off an eight-day ramble in Athlone and sit down with Coffey at his intimate Thyme restaurant.
Coffey’s ingredient-first approach turns seasonal regional produce into beautifully plated meals that celebrate the farmers, butchers, and families who keep the Midlands food scene thriving.
Taste Ireland…more specifically, taste the Hidden Heartlands of the Irish Midlands through a completely original cuisine designed around the fresh local produce from surrounding farms, on offer at Athlone’s Michelin Bib Gourmand culinary destination, Thyme Restaurant.
Chef John Coffey conjures up his ever-evolving menu around the vegetables local organic farmer Shannon is pulling or plucking from her nearby farm that day.
Local flavors, regional aromas, beautifully presented courses all plated by the Chef/Owner himself, the lively chatter of diners sitting down to what they know will be a memorable meal, the warm welcome and flawless service from the staff and the understated, unstuffy, intimate surroundings combined to provide a multisensory sendoff to Irish Stew’s “Off the Beaten Craic" series, the audio chronicle of podcast hosts John Lee and Martin Nutty’s eight-day ramble through Ireland's Hidden Heartlands, starting in Athlone, the geographic heart of Ireland astride the River Shannon’s “brightly glancing stream.”
The peripatetic podcasters launched the multipart series with this brief intro episode:
Chef Coffey recalls opening Thyme in November 2007, just months before the financial crisis devastated Ireland's economy, and surviving days with no customers, weeks without a salary, and months operating with a skeleton crew.
Maybe it was his unwavering commitment to hyperlocal sourcing that pulled him through. The menu changes constantly depending on seasonal availability of local produce—plums for three weeks, game in autumn, heritage potatoes in varieties like Purple Rain that supermarkets abandoned decades ago. Coffey's outlook is based on community interdependence, where farmers, butchers, and their families create a self-sustaining economic ecosystem.
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Don’t look for reality TV chaos in the kitchen, as Coffey creates an aura of focused calm in his domain, even when diners fill all of Thyme’s 56 seats.
On the podcast, Chef Coffey explains why he’s rejected expansion opportunities, so you’ll have to get to Athlone to sample his ballotine of quail with yuko leaf and heritage potatoes or anything else he creates.
So, lend an ear to Irish Stew as it begins its Midlands meanderings with a celebration of Ireland's culinary transformation and the growing appreciation for slower-paced, ingredient-focused Irish dining experiences that await in the Hidden Heartlands.
Go raibh an bia blasta!
You can listen to John Coffey on the Irish Stew Podcast here:
For more information, visit IrishStewPodcast.com. You can listen to "The Irish Stew Podcast" wherever you get your podcasts.
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