An immersive plant to plate experience nurtured by Ashford Estate’s team

CRÉ, The Kitchen Garden Experience Brings Guests Back To Nature At Ashford Castle

Cré is a new immersive food experience from the team on the Ashford Castle estate that will see guests don wellies, grab a handmade wicker basket and enjoy a kitchen garden tour where they will touch, taste, see, smell and forage the bountiful produce being grown in the estate’s two-acre historic kitchen garden. Afterwards, guests will visit Squire Danager’s cottage on the estate grounds where they will be joined by Ashford Castle’s executive head chef who will help guests prepare all the vegetables, fruit, herbs and edible flowers they harvested on the garden tour before chef takes over to cook a special three-course meal full of flavour and seasonal homegrown ingredients.

A unique chance to enjoy the best seasonal, sustainable produce sourced just yards from guests’ rooms in the company of some of the finest gardeners and chefs in the country, this experiential tour is rooted in nature, fostering a profound appreciation for food provenance. Cré, meaning soil or earth represents the rich foundation on which the estate’s kitchen gardens are built. Lead by estate gardeners, Alex Lavarde or Niamh Flannelly, executive head chef, Liam Finnegan and senior sous chef, Hilary Casey who are committed to evolving the estate’s food chain and imbuing a sense of place and purpose, the Cré tour will include:

- A private guided tour of the kitchen garden with Alex Lavarde or Niamh Flannelly, once tended by the Guinness family, now restored to its former glory and filled with a variety of homegrown produce such as rhubarb, garlic, peas, pumpkins, carrots, herbs and edible flowers

- Guests will learn about nature, seasonality, the estate's commitment to organic cultivation through its ‘no dig, no chemical philosophy’, as well as its commitment to enhancing and protecting biodiversity in the local area
Guests will touch, taste, smell, and pick seasonal fruits, vegetables, herbs and edible flowers

- Ashford Castle’s executive head chef Liam Finnegan and senior sous chef Hillary Casey will then meet the group at Squire Danagher's cottage on the estate grounds, where they will teach guests about food pickling and preservation, flavour balancing and preparing homemade salads dressings.

- The tour culminates in an engaging and interactive culinary experience, focused on provenance, where guests enjoy a three-course meal freshly prepared in front of them using the group’s harvested garden produce

- Guests will enjoy a delicious fresh salad, followed by a seasonal risotto and to finish, a selection of locally-sourced cheeses, homemade crackers, served with preserves made from produce grown on the estate grounds

Guests will discover, delight, and learn through this one-of-a-kind experience that showcases the vital role of food in a memorable holiday. This experience showcases the symbiotic relationship between gardener and chef as they work together to create next year's menus from the seeds of this year’s harvest.

Available from June to October, the ‘Cré: Kitchen Garden Experience’ lasts approximately 3.5hrs hours for groups of up to six people.