If you haven’t guessed already, here at The Dalkey Food Company we simply love food and everything that goes into preparing it. From making a great soup, to putting together a weekday meal for two, to a full-on dinner party for friends — the whole process is a pleasure! And is there anything better than savouring the results of your work with an excellent glass of wine?
“YES, CHEF!”
The epicurean adventurer/chief gourmand behind The Dalkey Food Company is Ivan Varian. From an early age, Ivan was fascinated by food having been brought up with plenty of home-grown and hunted produce. This ignited a passion in him for how we eat that has stayed with him ever since.
In 2010, his time as an Audio-Visual design manager came to an end and he was presented with an opportunity to take up a professional role and attend training in Ballymaloe Cookery School. From there he worked his way up through Michelin-starred kitchens and also gained experience as a personal chef to both Louis le Broquy and The Duke of Devonshire.
Through observation of the market he spotted a niche for a food service option of soup that tasted far superior to the current market standard at a cost-efficient level using his experience as both a chef and a business manager. Using feedback from café managers, he successfully established a business supplying soups to the foodservice industry, as well as office delivery. Through constant market research he has developed a series of seasonal soups to bring to the consumer.
In conjunction with this, he has co-produced, written, and co-presents Gulp – The Science of Food and Cooking, alongside Jonathan McCrea (Futureproof presenter and Newstalk science editor). The stage show is a nine course bonanza of the weird and wonderful aspects of where the fields of science intersects with how we cook, eat, and taste our food. The boys have performed this show at The Festival of Curiosity, Donegal Festival of Food, Northern Ireland Science Festival and Electric Picnic where they will be returning to perform in The Theatre of Food in the Mindfield Area for four years’ running.
As a graduate of the Musgrave’s Food Academy, SuperValu has been great in aiding the business to grow into a completely new sector. By providing the company with insight, mentorship, and practical knowledge of the retail sector through an intensive course, The Dalkey Food Company has been able to grow its current market base, expand to larger production kitchens, hire highly-skilled staff, and purchase more from local growers and producers, and thus strengthen their slow food ethos.
Ivan is as dedicated to music as he is to food and he also DJs in festivals such as Electric Picnic, Body and Soul and The Beatyard.
OUR FOOD PRINCIPLES
It takes a certain skill and general culinary knowledge in order to cook well and trust that your food will match your enthusiasm, but we also believe that it just takes a love of flavour and some pure abandon to become a good cook. We can teach you the skills and practice does, indeed, make perfect, so choose the best ingredients you can and dive in. Enjoy it, don't dread it!
We're not too much of an opinionated bunch, but we do feel strongly about a few things...
Our motto is Buy Irish, Buy Local, Buy in Season. You will end up with a better meal if you do.
We promise!
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Site photography by Clare Wilkinson, Daniel McCrea and Russ Healy.