AN IRISH COUNTRY AFFAIR

WITH MIMI + ODDUR THORISSON

GLIN CASTLE, IRELAND

Our Lens & Larder retreat, An Irish Country Affair: Glin Castle, took place October 28-31st, 2017 at one of Ireland’s most historic castles on the banks of the River Shannon. It was an enchanting autumn weekend filled with cooking, photography, and country pursuits with a special nod to Samhain, the ancient Celtic tradition of Halloween, which originated in Ireland in the 9th century.

At the helm of Lens & Larder: An Irish Country Affair were Mimi and Oddur Thorisson, the internationally acclaimed food writing and photography team behind the award-winning food blog, Manger, and best-selling books, A Kitchen in France, A Year of Cooking (2014) and French Country Cooking (2016) published by Clarkson-Potter. Mimi and Oddur live in Médoc, France with their 8 children and 9 dogs. Together they host wildly popular cooking and photography workshops in their home and the surrounding wine country. Both Oddur and Mimi are contributing editors to Condé Nast Traveler, and their work has featured in Vanity Fair, New York Times,Vogue Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, House & Garden, Bon Appetit and more.

Lens & Larder were positively tickled to marry Mimi and Oddur’s classic country house cooking and visual aesthetic with the noble history and sensational style of Glin Castle for an unforgettable weekend of visual learning, cooking lessons, magic and mirth.

Over the course of three nights, student guests experienced cooking and demos with a bounty of indigenous and seasonal Irish ingredients, traditional music, an autumnal garden walk and history talk with renowned landscape architect and daughter of the Knight of Glin, and welcome cocktails and dinner with her husband, award-winning actor, Dominic West; an authentic pub dinner at the charming O’Shaughnessy’s of Glin, afternoon tea in the castle, an Irish Harriers Hunt, and finished with Mimi’s magnificent masquerade Sahmain farewell feast a la "Big Little Lies'. All the time honing and developing the skills to capture the story in camera as it beautifully unfolded.