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food-drink · Friday 14 August 2026 · 7:00pm 
Market Table Zero-Waste Dinner - Cork on a Fork Fest 2026
At The English Market · Grand Parade, Cork City, Co. Cork
At The English Market · Grand Parade, Cork City, Co. Cork
One evening a year, the fountain area of Cork’s English Market gets cleared of its usual bustle and set with long tables and candles for a dinner that takes food waste seriously - and still manages to feel like a proper occasion. The Market Table Zero-Waste Dinner is the kind of event you come away talking about: the setting alone is extraordinary, but it is the thinking behind the food that makes it stick. Sustainability chef Orla McAndrew builds the menu from surplus and seasonal ingredients sourced from the market traders, partnering with food waste charity FoodCloud to show what careful, considered cooking can actually look like on a plate. It suits people who care about where their food comes from, couples looking for an evening with some substance to it, and anyone who has ever walked through the English Market and wondered what it would feel like to eat there after hours.
The evening opens with a drinks reception - Rebel City Distillery and Elbow Lane spirits to settle you in - before guests take their seats in the fountain area, one of the most distinctive rooms in Ireland. Orla McAndrew’s menu is built on the principle that surplus does not mean second-rate: the cooking draws on what is freshest and most abundant, channelled through technique rather than waste. Bubble Brothers provide the wine pairings throughout the meal, matching each course to what is on the plate. The whole event is part of Cork on a Fork Fest 2026, which runs 12 to 16 August across the city and brings together more than 150 food and drink events. Capacity for the Market Table is limited, so this is not a door-on-the-night sort of evening.
Cork City is well connected by rail from Dublin Heuston (roughly two and a quarter hours), Limerick, and Killarney, with Kent Station a short walk or taxi from the city centre. By road, the M8 brings you in from Dublin and the M20 from Limerick. Grand Parade, where the English Market sits, is central and walkable from most city hotels. Paid car parks are available nearby on Lavitt’s Quay and South Main Street, though Cork city-centre parking fills quickly on festival evenings - public transport or walking from accommodation is the easier call.
Cork on a Fork Fest fills the whole week with dinners, tastings, cookery demonstrations and street food markets, so arriving the day before or staying on for the weekend gives you plenty to build around. There is more to see in Cork and across Co. Cork.
Heading to The English Market in Cork? Cork has plenty more to see. Read the Cork area guide, find what else is on, and explore the towns and villages nearby.