A Smokin’ Dublin Food Tour Highlights Ireland’s Green Credentials

If you want to know about sustainability in Dublin, you have to ask Gareth Mullins to take you to the fishing village of Howth.

Mullins is the executive chef at Anantara The Marker Dublin Hotel, a luxury hotel that caters mostly to business travelers in Dublin's trendy Docklands.

The hotel has a program called Spice Spoons that brings visitors on a culinary tour of Howth for a private boat excursion around a historic island and then offers a behind-the-scenes look at making smoked salmon. The adventure ends with a cooking class at the hotel.

But Mullins' tour also has a hidden agenda: to show off Dublin's green credentials.

Dublin has come a long way toward sustainability

On his way to Howth, Mullins points to the recent changes that have made Dublin a green city. In 2016, the Irish capital adopted a sweeping sustainability plan to add a green infrastructure featuring more green spaces to mitigate the effects of climate change.

But Mullins says a change was already underway. The industries that defined Dublin in the 20th century had shut down, and the abandoned docks were already being transformed into a gleaming new business district. He points out the new buildings — Anantara The Marker among them, as well as offices and apartments — that have sprung up here in the last two decades.

Apart from a few historic buildings that have been preserved, Dublin, he says, is "almost unrecognizable" from its former self. Visitors coming here can watch the transformation unfold in front of them as new buildings rise in the Docklands and old buildings are renovated, including the iconic Poolbeg chimneys, one of the city's most recognized landmarks.

But in Dublin, sustainability also extends to the sea.

Around Ireland’s Eye in a private charter

Spice Spoons is a brand-wide program from Anantara Hotels that offers local and sustainable experiences around the world. For example, you can learn how to prepare Bacalhau à Brás in Portugal or Khao Soi in Thailand under the guidance of an expert chef. The idea behind Spice Spoons is to guide you through the marketplace, familiarize you with the fresh ingredients in the area and then show you how to prepare the food.

Mullins' version of the tour starts with a cruise around Ireland's Eye, a small uninhabited island in the Irish Sea. The island and harbor also have their own sustainability story. Since this is still a working fishing village, you can't avoid talking about the plummeting fish stocks in the area.

The number of wild salmon returning to Ireland fell from 1.76 million in 1975 to just 171,700 in 2022, according to the Irish government — a development officials called "catastrophic." Ireland currently places strict limits on catching salmon and tough fines on violators. Almost all salmon is farm-raised because fishing for wild salmon is no longer sustainable.

Ireland's Eye has a rich history, and from the boat you can see the remains of a sixth-century church and a well-preserved Martello tower used to protect Ireland against Napoleon in the 19th century. The Eye is also part of a Special Area of Conservation because of its abundance of seabirds, including puffin and cormorant.

It's against the backdrop of this fragile ecosystem that Mullins will show you how they smoke salmon in a sustainable way.

This is how they smoke salmon sustainably in Ireland

David Twiss, a business development manager at Kish Fish, is eager to show visitors the details of the sustainable salmon smoking efforts. With salmon stocks being depleted, how do you manage to make smoked salmon sustainable?

The market is just starting to get busy on a recent morning. Visitors are checking out the day's catch of trout, tuna and eel, and the adjoining restaurant is beginning to fill with patrons. You wouldn't know that behind the scenes, Kish Fish is working hard at staying sustainable.

Twiss says the entire operation is focused on sustainability. For example, it only buys from operators who use responsible practices and follow internationally agreed fishing quotas. It's a member of the Responsible Irish Fish Society. But it also finds ways to minimize its waste and create a better product in its kitchen.

The process is good for customers and for the environment, says Twiss. "It will increase the sustainability of the fish," he says. He hopes that the government's fishing restrictions will allow the salmon to return and let Kish begin using more wild salmon.

So what is the secret to smoking salmon in a sustainable way? After the salmon fillets spend at least a day curing in salt, they're brought to a custom smoker that uses friction rather than a traditional fire to create smoke. A small turbine rubs the wood, releasing a controlled amount of smoke. The result is a more consistent product and energy savings, which keeps the whole operation more sustainable.

Sustainability also carries over to the kitchen at places like Anantara The Marker.

How The Marker started its sustainability journey

When it comes to sustainable tourism in Dublin, there are few narratives as compelling as Anantara The Marker's.

The 187-room property, with its distinctive checkerboard facade, first opened a decade ago and became Anantara last year. Since then, Anantara Hotels has pushed it toward sustainability by encouraging its managers to move away from single-use plastics, cutting waste and reducing energy usage.

But Mullins, the executive chef, says programs like Spice Spoons give visitors the scoop on sustainability in a memorable way: via the dinner table.

On a recent afternoon, he shows visitors how to make a traditional Irish soda bread with a sustainable twist. His adapted recipe is plant-based, using almond milk instead of buttermilk.

"What I found in recent years is that guests want more vegetables," says Mullins. "It has brought us into a sustainability conversation that is ongoing."

Usually, Mullins will incorporate some of the freshly smoked salmon into one of his trademark dishes. It's about as close as you can get to tasting sustainability in Dublin.

Maybe the secret to Dublin's sustainability success lies in its ability to blend old-world charm with new-world innovation. From the historic Poolbeg chimneys to the cutting-edge smokers at Kish Fish, the city is a living testament to the power of reinvention.

And with foodies like Mullins at the helm, it's a future that doesn't just look good — it also tastes good.