A HOST of British culinary stars will be in Co. Cavan later this year to take part in Richard Corrigan’s annual Homegrown festival.
Dame Prue Leith, chef Angela Hartnett and Henry Harris are among the names released this month for the weekend retreat, which is held at Corrigan’s Virgina Park Lodge.
The Meath-born restaurateur, who owns Corrigan's Bar & Restaurant, Bentley’s Oyster Bar and Grill, Daffodil Mulligan Restaurant & Gibney's Bar in London, will open up his eighteenth century hunting estate for the third consecutive year to host the festival which celebrates “dining, entertainment, music and the countryside”.
The event will take place at Corrigan's Virginia Park Lodge“Joining Richard for 2026 is an exceptional roster of talent drawn from across the UK and Ireland,” a spokesperson for the festival confirmed this week.
“Among them is Dame Prue Leith DBE, a towering figure in British food, with a career spanning more than five decades, including nearly 10 years as a judge on The Great British Bake Off,” they added.
“Angela Hartnett OBE, Chef Patron of Michelin-starred Murano and the Café Murano group, and co-host of the podcast Dish, will bring her Italian flair alongside Luke Holder, chef director at Hartnett Holder & Co at Lime Wood, a five-star hotel in Hampshire, while Neil Borthwick of Soho’s iconic French House showcases his hearty French provincial cuisine in the Irish countryside.
The weekend event will celebrate dining, entertainment, music and the countryside“Henry Harris of Bouchon Racine fame continues the classical French thread, while Sally Barnes of Woodcock Smokery in West Cork, Ireland’s last traditional wild fish smoker, also joins the programme.”
Limited to 80 guests, the event will take place from October 16-19.
Accommodation at Virginia Park Lodge and Richard’s neighbouring pub, The Deerpark Inn, is reserved exclusively for retreat guests and visitors get to enjoy the luxury of the main Lodge or choose one of the bespoke shepherd’s huts scattered across the grounds to themselves for the weekend.
Guest can stay at the Lodge or in one of the estate's shepherd's hutsReturning to the Festival for 2026 are Dublin-born Robin Gill, who now runs several restaurants in London including Darby’s, and London-based chef Valentine Warner.
The weekend will conclude with a supper led by Lily Ramirez-Foran, founder of Ireland’s first Mexican grocer and cookery school.
“Working with Richard, all the chefs will collaborate throughout the weekend, sharing their individual styles and philosophies while drawing inspiration from the estate’s larder,” the festival spokesperson added.
As well as a series of meals, activities and dining events, there will also be live music from the Galway-born artist Mary Coughlan at the festival.
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