It’s an unusually sunny October morning when I meet DU Food and Drink’s chairperson Laoise Brady outside the Arts Block. Two takeaway cups from the Dublin Barista School (DBS) sit on the bench between us as we discuss everything from organising wine tastings to our least favourite vegetables. The MSISS student is arguably the biggest foodie on campus and I have been looking forward to speaking with her for some time.
“I love coffee”, she says, sipping on her Americano. DBS is one of her favourites, a popular choice among many Trinity students eager for a pre-lecture caffeine hit. Interested to know how she came to be here, I ask her if she was always a part of the culinary world.
It would be an understatement to say that Brady comes from a food-oriented background. “My dad is a chef”, she explains. “I got my first knife when I was two — it was terrifying for my mother!”
She recalls evenings spent cooking dinner with her dad after school and baking with a pal across the road as a kid. These experiences were the “perfect excuse” for her to get involved with DU Food and Drink. Her first interaction with the society was a competition with the Ballymaloe Cookery School — which she unfortunately did not win — and from there she decided to get more involved.
“It was in the midst of lockdown and I needed something to do.” On a whim, she joined the committee and won the role of events officer a year later. “My life became food and drink last year”, she remembers. Now at the helm of the group, I ask her what it’s like to run a society centred around something as ubiquitous yet subjective as food.
She credits her fellow committee members as being a help: “We don’t all come from one discipline, everyone is just a foodie.” With the presence of members with different diets, Brady says there’s more of a focus on diversity this year than before: “Last year we only had, like, one vegetarian and that was it.”
As there are a few committee members in their final year of college, including Brady herself, the planning of events and other responsibilities are spread out across the team. “Everyone is willing to help out”, she notes. “We want this to run really well.”
It certainly looks like they will given this year’s lineup. The Irish Examiner’s Leslie Williams is set to return for a wine tasting, their famous Dublin Mystery Food Tour is back (she looks incredulous when I admit that I’ve never been), Oktoberfest in the Pavilion Bar is on the cards and so is a ‘pink party’ with the Cancer Society.
She’s particularly excited about a forthcoming collaboration with Sprout & Co’s founders in their location on the quays. The society is also affiliated with Press Up Hospitality Group, so they are well-acquainted with the Dublin food industry.
At one point, our conversation is infiltrated by the sounds of French tourists searching for the Book of Kells. Brady recalls visiting Paris and I’m curious as to what she ate there. “A lot of ham and cheese”, she laughs, “and we drank a lot of white wine!” However, she’s not a fan of red, which she regrets as “it pairs better with meat”.
I ask her where she likes to eat in Dublin, and I realise that we have similar taste. “I love Carluccio’s pasta if they have the spicy sausage”, she says. Tang’s flatbreads are mentioned as well as Dunnes Stores’ “phenomenal” salad bar where a box can be filled to the brim for a fiver.
“Have you ever been to Pickle?” she exclaims – Sunil Ghai’s and Benny Jacob’s Indian restaurant is another favourite. I say I haven’t and given her reaction, I decide to look into it later. “I can be a bit of a food snob”, she admits. I disagree privately — although it’s clear that she loves good food, there isn’t a whiff of condescension in the air.
Despite the list of restaurants, Brady does her best to resist eating out too often. “I try to bring in my lunch [from home] as much as possible or else I’ll have no money in my bank account”, she remarks. That said, she was once a regular at the Buttery: “I used to get a plate of chips [there] in first-year”.
“Do you cook regularly?” I enquire. “I bake a lot”, she replies, her go-to being coffee cake. “I think that if you make a good cake that’s the sign of a good baker.” She also remembers cooking meals more frequently during lockdown, when there was less work on her plate.
I wonder if there’s any food that she simply won’t eat. Admittedly, she is “not the biggest fan of quiche” and takes exception to courgettes (“too watery”). “I could talk about food all day,” she says, laughing. So could I, so to wrap up our chat, I ask her what she’d like people to know about the Food and Drink society.
“Our motto is to be inclusive of everyone”, she says, “and show you what Dublin has to offer on a student budget — ‘cause we’re all on a budget!”
One particular thing Brady loves is the social aspect of the society: “I saw two girls the other day and I know for a fact I introduced them during freshers’ week.” She sees food as a way of bringing people together and taking the pressure off making new connections as “you can already talk about something you both love”.
To join DU Food and Drink and eat to your heart’s content, follow them on Instagram @dufoodanddrink for events, recipes and plenty more.
