Sally Barnes, founder of Woodcock Smokery, a champion of wild fish, and Ireland’s most revered artisan fish smoker, is coming to Platform by JBF in partnership with Bog & Thunder, an eco-culinary tourism company focused on Irish food, culture, and sustainability. Barnes, who has been smoking wild fish in West Cork, Ireland, for over 40 years, will demystify fish smoking for novices. Her lifetime of skills and knowledge will be shared in an intimate hands-on demonstration and storytelling experience.
You’ll learn her expert tips and the technical aspects of fish smoking from selecting fish to filleting to different types of brining and curing. Barnes will share her stories and how fishing and preserving have changed throughout her life. Attendees will have a chance to fillet fish and participate in the smoking process as they watch the “Sally Barnes method” in action.
We’ll finish with a tasting of the fish we smoked, accompanied by sparkling wine and more of Sally’s favorite snacks.
General Admission: $95
MENU
Smoked Wild Alaskan Eva’s Wild Salmon
New York Bluefish Pâté on Irish Brown Bread
Smoked Bonito with Cucumber and Shoyu
All fish are wild caught.
Sparkling wine to be served.
About Sally Barnes and the Woodcock Smokery:
Sally Ferns-Barnes began traditional smoke-curing as a means to preserve the bounty that she and husband at the time were catching from the Atlantic waters of the West Cork coastline. Working as a fisherwoman and commercial fisherman’s wife, she smoked her first fish in 1979, and through endless trial and error, supplying the local community with preserved fish, established a famously unique recipe that began winning awards and accolades, including the prestigious Supreme Champion at the Great Taste awards for her now legendary cold-smoked Wild Atlantic Salmon, and most recently the Eurotoques Craft award.
Working only and always with wild fish, Sally has remained a stalwart of small-scale independent business with a predominantly local client base, and dealing with genuinely sustainable quantities of real fish from local boats when the weather is good and the fish are in season.
With a firm and unfaltering stance against environmentally unsound aquaculture, Sally has won the respect of retailers and top chefs around the world, speaking regularly at Slow Food events in defense of natural produce and now supplying some of the Michelin starred restaurants around Ireland with her deep knowledge of true, natural fish from West Cork waters.
About Bog & Thunder:
Bog & Thunder is a regenerative, eco-travel, and tourism company offering curated group tours and private individual trips that highlight the best of Irish food and culture. Founded in 2021 by Irish-American Kate McCabe and her husband, Max Sussman, a James Beard Award–nominated chef and co-owner of Samesa Restaurant, Bog & Thunder’s tours and experiences showcase why Ireland is the globe’s next, most sought-after culture and culinary destination.
Tickets to events held at Platform at Pier 57 by the James Beard Foundation cover the cost of food, education and a unique dining experience. Meals are prepared by culinary masters from all regions of the United States and around the world. Unless otherwise stated, alcoholic beverages are provided on a complimentary basis and are not included in the ticket price.
James Beard Foundation events permit guests age 21 years and older to attend events where alcoholic beverages are served.