Ray plans to cook up a storm at Food Fest

Date Published: 21-Mar-2013

Most of us need ever know how to butcher our meat but it’s good to know where the different cuts come from and how to get the best out of them.

For the second year running, Ray Colleran will be giving a butchery demonstration at the Galway Food Festival alongside chef and festival co-organiser, JP McMahon who will be doing the cooking.

And while Ray certainly has the gift of the gab and is by no means shy, the event last year in the Festival tent at the Spanish Arch was his first public demonstration and he thoroughly enjoyed it.

Last year, he used a pig, this year it’s lamb, an apt choice coming up to Easter. In fact the demonstration takes place on Good Friday and Ray is banking on having enough ‘heathens’ in the crowd, who won’t be abstaining from meat, to volunteer as tasters!

“We got a great response to it last year. I brought along a whole pig and I explained how every bit of it could be used. This year it’s a lamb and JP will be giving a recipe for each bit though we will also be concentrating on slow cooking, using a shoulder. I know that JP has recipes too for the heart and sweetbreads.

“Most people think they don’t have time to cook something for four to five hours but they do. You just put it in a low temperature oven, like 120c, and leave it for anything between four to five hours. The longer it’s left, the better.”

Ray is the third generation running the family business, John E Colleran & Sons, which was established in 1935 by his grandparents, John and Bridget, and is saddened to see that he is one of a handful of butcher shops left in the city centre. He stresses that his definition of the city centre is what is known as the Heart of Galway.

At one time there were probably a dozen butcher shops in the city centre when there was an abattoir in Newtownsmyth. Now, most people get their meat in the local supermarket.

But the recent meat scandal (evidence of horse DNA in beef burgers) has actually brought new customers to butchers, says Ray, who says he has a loyal customer base.

“We have had the same type of customers for years down through the generations. We know who they are, what they like, how they like it but recently we have seen some new faces, younger people, and I believe it’s because the meat scandal has made people think about where their food is sourced.

“We have been getting our meat from Burkes in Kinvara for years. It’s all about traceability now and that’s a good thing, that people want to know where their food comes from,” says Ray.

But of course, customer demand has changed over the years as people’s palates have become more sophisticated, due to increased overseas travel and the city’s increased multi-culturalism.

Now, a butcher’s skills have widened to include knowledge of marinades and sauces and how to present pieces of meats, practically ready to go into oven.

Ray appreciates the power of display and if meat is presented nicely, the more likely it is to be sold. Most of his own staff – there are 18 employed in total between the shop in Mainguard Street and the factory in Liosban – have attended cookery courses and he hopes to entice another city chef, whose work he admires, to do a demonstration in the factory soon.

He names Kevin Higgins and Paul Hickey from his own shop as having great skill and experience and, like himself they have the personal touch with customers, something which is rarely if ever found in supermarket chains.

Ray is proud of all the staff, who have been with the company for varying lengths of time, with the longest-serving being there 35 years and the most recent having joined just three weeks ago. He is a young man who was on a Job Bridge (a scheme for unemployed people) with them.

Ray’s father, Paul, a former city councillor, ran the shop with his brother Enda, whose children, Donal and Maeve are also involved in the business.

Ray was only 17 when he started working in the family firm, following a year in catering college in Dublin’s Marlborough Street after he did his Leaving Cert.

For more, read this week's Galway City Tribune.