Irish Massachusetts

COOKING FOR THE KENNEDYS New book recalls favorite Kennedy recipes and stories By Michael P. Quinlin One of Neil Connolly’s biggest assignments as an award-winning chef was to bake a birthday cake at a family gathering. It wasn’t an ordinary cake, or an ordinary family. The occasion was Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy’s 103rd birthday, and included dozens of siblings, children, grandchildren and elders who had come together at the Kennedy Compound in Hyannisport. “I walked into the dining room with the cake – lighted with all the candles – and everyone started singing Happy Birthday,” said Connolly, who served as the personal chef to Sen. Edward Kennedy and his mother for nearly twelve years. “When the candles were blown out, the room quickly filled with smoke. Senator Kennedy said, ‘Neil, take the cake outside before the fire alarm sounds.’ Needless to say, the party moved to the living room.” Connolly’s passion for cooking and preparing creative cuisine found a good home at the Compound, wh...

Taking a Pass on Corned Beef By Michael P. Quinlin In Boston, corned beef and cabbage is being edged off the St. Patrick’s Day menu, replaced by more exotic dishes like Wild Irish Rabbit, Spring Lamb and Irish Potato Cakes with fresh Salmon. These dishes are part of this year’s 4th annual Gaelic Gourmet Week in Boston, a moveable feast of upscale culinary events in the city’s finest hotels, restaurants, pubs, museums and theaters. The culinary feasts focus on Ireland’s relatively new status as a culinary destination, and puts Ireland’s leading chefs alongside their counterparts in the United States and Canada, where the gathering of chefs can share culinary techniques, recipes and traditions. The menu also reflects the changing tastes of Irish-American culture, which had somehow gotten mired for decades in a belief and practice that Irish food was strictly a boiled affair. Tourism Ireland and the Boston Irish Tourism Association are co-sponsors of the event, along with the Irish Dairy...