Joe Jets Off to Royal Wedding
Sligo Weekender, May 2002
http://archives.tcm.ie/sligoweekender/2002/05/02/story6179.asp
A Sligo chef was among hundreds of staff catering for a Royal Wedding in Saudi Arabia on St Patrick’s weekend of this year. Joe Shannon, who works as head chef in Coriander’s Restaurant and The Dooney Bar in Stephen Street, was originally invited to the Middle East to cater for the 25th anniversary celebrations of the Irish Society there.
However, he soon found himself involved in preparing food for the 6000 guests attending the lavish two day wedding with a budget of £30 million sterling. “The Irish Society of Abu Dabi celebrated 25 years in operation this year. They planned a full week long festival based in the Crowne Plaza,” said Joe.
“I was co-ordinating the Irish food along with the Crowne Plaza chefs. We had to provide hot and cold buffets each evening with an Irish theme, for 300 to 400 people.”
As well as the daily activities of the week long festival, Joe was also one of the co-ordinators for the 600 guest gala dinner for the special guest, Conor Murphy, Irish Ambassador to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
The weekend was organised by the Irish Society whose current president is a Sligo woman, Noeleen Saeed (formerly Heraghty) originally from St Joseph’s Terrace in Sligo town. While working with the Crowne Plaza chefs, most of whom had never dealt with Irish food before, the hotel were commissioned to provide food for the royal wedding.
Crown Prince Abdullah’s eldest son was getting married and dignitaries from all over the world joined with the elite of the Middle East to celebrate the occasion. As is customary, the event was split into two extravagant banquets, one for the male guests and one for the females.
“There were five hotels involved in the catering including the Crown Plaza. The Crown Plaza presented canapés to 6,000 guests. It was amazing, there was over 30,000 different pieces (of canapés). “Juices from all over the world, foods I never seen before. If you wanted any type of food there were two aeroplanes on standby as well, to get it for you.” Joe was in Saudi Arabia for 12 days from March 13-24. He was invited by the Irish Society after one of the Crowne Plaza managers ate at Coriander’s during a visit to Sligo. He was one of only two chefs from Europe involved in the event.
