Jp McMahon of Aniar Restaurant is well known for his love of quality well reared meats. He’s often photographed with a whole pig over his shoulder, as he hauls it back to the Aniar kitchens for careful preparation and cooking. Everything is used – nose to tail dining  – which has inspired his cookery class on The Whole Hog at Aniar Cookery School. In this year’s Good Food Ireland awards, he took the top accolade for  Best Innovative Cookery Course 2013-2014 for The Whole Hen class – a session in the kitchen where students learn how to prepare and cook every bit of a whole bird. This is good housekeeping on an extremely practical level for home use.   If you are going to use the whole bird,, it’s worth spending a bit extra to get a good quality free range chicken where nothing will be wasted. The next Whole Hen class is in March 2014. In the meantime though, JP is getting to grips with  The Perfect Christmas Dinner. We all want to know how to achieve that without stress – and with copious amounts of style! Irish traditional treatments for the big day, plus some genius new ideas too. Learn how to do it all in a relaxed environment where personal hands on help is the key. Maximum of six students per class for the first three Sundays in December. Booking a must.