‘Every dish I cook has a story to tell’

For Cinta Ramblado, food is a story waiting to be told. Much more than nourishment; it means sitting down – for hours, sometimes – and savouring every bite of a meal. It means taking time in the kitchen to prepare everything, lovingly, from scratch.

Cinta has called rural Ireland home for over 30 years, but has never forgotten the tastes of her Andalusian upbringing: sun-kissed tomatoes on toasted sourdough; the deep nutty tones of true Iberico pork.

These stories, feelings and memories are the things she hopes to impart on her guests when they dine at her restaurant, Choquera Bakery & Bistro, which is located in Newport, Co Tipperary.

“For me, it’s the whole ritual around food,” she says. “It’s not just sitting down to eat. I’ve always loved cooking, baking and the flavours of my upbringing. I grew up in our local market, because my parents were butchers, and so I was surrounded by food my whole life.”

Global flavours

Cinta is one of a growing number of rural restaurant and food business owners focusing on global flavours. This term indicates a focus on flavours and dishes from countries other than Ireland – flavours which might feel exotic to the traditional Irish palate.

It wasn’t so long ago when, if you were looking for Chinese rice wine or miso paste, you would have to travel to your nearest city centre to buy them in a specialised shop.

Now, we see increasing access to quality international ingredients on supermarket shelves and international hospitality experiences, like the one Cinta offers at Choquera.

Cinta originally came to Ireland to study and for over 25 years she was working within a completely different industry.

She didn’t just want to open another Spanish tapas restaurant, but something which focuses on her own regional cuisine

“I came over to do the last year of my degree,” she explains. “I did a degree in modern languages and, during that year, I met my husband.

"I worked in Northern Ireland for a year and then I came to the University of Limerick [UL] to do my PhD. Then, for the next 25 years, I taught at UL. In my last seven years, I was head of the department for modern languages. I was ready to start something new, though, so two and a half years ago, I opened Choquera.”

“Choquera” is a play on the Spanish word for cuttlefish, and is the nickname given to those from Cinta’s Andalusian region of Huelva. She decided to leave academia and open Choquera Bakery & Bistro because she wanted to share her culinary heritage with her local Irish community.

She didn’t just want to open another Spanish tapas restaurant, but something which focuses on her own regional cuisine.

Focus on regional

We are seeing more specialised international cuisine featured in rural Ireland every day. For example, chef Sham Hanifa has been cooking food from his Malaysian roots in Co Leitrim for many years now, and the menu at two Michelin starred restaurant Dede, in Baltimore, Co Cork, is heavily influenced by chef Ahmet Dede’s Turkish culture.

Sligo’s Global Kitchen is a community food organisation which brings together both Irish natives and newcomers to share global flavours and unique cultural stories.

These food ventures have enriched rural communities in many ways; adding a bit of spice and flair to the local food scene, but also creating employment and opportunities to connect. Cinta says her own region of Huelva is found on the southwest coast of Spain, between Seville and Portugal.

“[The region] is known as the ‘Coast of Light’, because it gets more sunlight than anywhere else,” she says.

“Another thing about Huelva is, when it comes to food, we have everything. We are [considered by some] to be the richest food county in Spain – we have the sea, the plains and the mountains, and all the food and drink those places can provide.”

This means plenty of fresh fish and seafood from the coast, Iberico pork, which is raised in the mountains, and – from the plains – Condado de Huelva wines, which is a protected European designation area (DOP) and covers 18 different municipalities around Huelva.

“The most distinct wine is made with the Zalema grape; a white grape that gives you the base for all the white wines made in the region,” Cinta says. “There is a whole culture around the wine. We’re talking mostly small family vineyards and, in many cases, the bigger ones are cooperatives.”

Aside from offering breakfast, lunch, baked goods and Friday night tapas at Choquera, Cinta also has a small food shop where you can purchase ingredients from the Huelva region, including Iberico serrano ham, wines and olive oils.

Gradual introduction

While she offers a unique glimpse into her food culture, Cinta also knew she needed to include some familiar menu items to diners, like an Irish breakfast alongside her pan con tomate.

“At first, we tried to do some fusion to offer people what they might be used to, because we’re in a rural area,” she says. “I started introducing Spanish things slowly. We started offering sourdough with serrano ham, garlic and tomato in the morning for breakfast, and then salads with our special dressing for lunch. People have come to love our salads because of the dressing.

“One of the most popular dishes we offer is the tortilla,” she adds. “We make individual ones on the spot, which takes a bit more time, but it’s worth it. I have really welcomed the open palate our community in Newport have; they are very much open to exploring new flavours.

We started offering sourdough with serrano ham, and then salads with our special dressing for lunch. People have come to love our salads because of the dressing

"Every dish has a story and they always want to know the story – that’s a really nice experience for me.”

Over the years, Cinta has seen a noticeable shift in the rural Irish palate. She says her location in Newport is ideal, because many residents work in nearby Limerick city centre and are adventurous diners.

In general, though, her entire community has a taste for global flavours.

“I remember, years ago, when I went to a supermarket I couldn’t get olive oil. You couldn’t find a courgette or an aubergine,” she recalls.

“There’s a lot more diversity in the shops and a huge change in terms of people willing to taste new things. It’s not just the influx of new people coming in Ireland, though it is a lot more multicultural than it used to be – I think people being able to go on holidays abroad [as they have become more affordable] has had a major influence, as well.”

On 18 October, Cinta hosted an Eat Spain Drink Spain (ESDS; a celebration of Spanish food and drink in Ireland) event which focused on Andalusian food and tapas. Cinta loves being involved in these events as they are all chances to expand on that food culture story.

“When I was an academic my area of research was memory, and my food culture; my community is very much connected to that aspect of memory. Every tapas we offer here has a history or a story behind it.”

If, like Cinta, you want to share a unique food culture with your community but don’t have the resources to open a restaurant or café, there are still ways to start a food business.

Many start out small, generally in their local farmers markets, and develop a product line for retail once they have an idea of what customers are looking for.

Your local enterprise office (localenterprise.ie) and Teagasc (teagasc.ie) offer supports to those looking to develop food products, and there are also labs and food innovation campuses throughout the country which can help with things like nutritional or shelf-life testing.

For female entrepreneurs, the ACORNS programme (acorns.ie) has been designed to help women in rural Ireland navigate the early stages of their business.

If you have already developed a product line, the Food Works programme (foodworksireland.ie) is now accepting applications for their 2025 programme. Food Works is Ireland’s leading accelerator programme for high-potential food and drink companies.

The aim of Food Works is to help drive scale and enable small food and drink businesses to grow sustainably; with tailor-made supports. It is a collaboration between Bord Bia, Enterprise Ireland and Teagasc and runs from February to November. Successful applicants may have the opportunity to receive feasibility grant funding of up to €30,000.

Sofie Rooney is co-founder of Chimac and a 2024 participant in the Food Works programme. Chimac is a popular Dublin-based restaurant which focuses on Korean-style fried chicken sandwiches.

Chimac’s popular menu items have led to the development of a line of Korean-inspired sauces for retail. Sofie has benefitted from participating in the Food Works programme and says an increased demand in global flavours is clearly evident from the amount of international food businesses all over Ireland.

“From Caribbean to Korean to Ethiopian and Venezuelan; it’s only natural that consumers will want to replicate these flavours and experiences at home with ingredients and meal solutions that let them travel through food,” she tells Irish Country Living.

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