Ralph Rolle announced for Theatre of Food

Ralph Rolle, drummer with legendary band Chic, will demonstrate another of his remarkable talents at this year’s Theatre of Food at Electric Picnic.

Ralph is a highly accomplished baker and he established The Soul Snacks Cookies Company in 1996 in the Bronx in New York. At this year’s Theatre of Food, he will bake a selection of his much loved and sought after cookies, as well as playing some of Chic’s best known songs and discussing how he manages to combine playing and touring with Chic, with running his highly successful food business.

Soul Snacks Cookie Company offers a variety of delicious cookies, all using recipes that have been in Ralph’s family for over three generations.  When not playing with Chic, Ralph can be found in the bakery from 5.30am, working with his team of bakers, all of whom are from the local community, as Ralph’s philosophy is one of giving back to the local community.  All his plans for expansion are based on using the power of local workers and reinvesting the profit into their communities.  He currently has a bakery in New York, which provides products to retail outlets throughout the USA, as well as offering a worldwide online order service and a hugely successful four storey outlet in Tokyo. Soul Snacks Cookies have been enjoyed by Jennifer Lopez, Bette Middler, Whoopi Goldberg and Prince Albert of Monaco amongst others.

Apart from playing with Nile Rodgers and Chic, Ralph has also played with Lady GaGa, Prince, Sly and the Family Stone, Chaka Khan, Sting and Stevie Wonder. Ralph will appear at the Theatre of Food on Sunday 4th September at the Electric Picnic in Stradbally, Co. Laois and there will be samples of his cookies available for tasting. 

Info on Theatre of Food:

The culinary corner that is Theatre of Food returns for its sixth year to Electric Picnic 2016. Once again bringing its delicious smorgasbord of cutting-edge food demos, wired-up mixology, inspired culinary workshops, and far-out foodie tastings for Picnickers of all ages.

 

Theatre of Food, the place where Irish food lovers come to learn, share, and devour glorious recipes made on site by the Doyle Collection Kitchen will also welcome seasoned Theatre of Foodies: starred chefs, Derry Clarke, Gary O’Hanlon, Ross Lewis, and Kevin Thornton, restaurateurs, and food stars Clodagh McKenna, The Happy Pear David & Stephen Flynn, and Declan Maxwell. New faces this year include Miss Universe Ireland, food blogger, cookery book author and fashion model Roz Purcell; best-selling cookbook author, blogger and YouTube star, Susan Jane White; and chef/creator of legendary pop-ups such as Dilisk, Katie Sanderson.

 

Children will be entertained with a special pizza-making session, plus there’ll be a push to beat the record set last year for the longest length of pasta ever produced at a music festival.

 

Music is one of the overall themes of the Theatre this year as Theatre of Food has, after all, a team of people who somehow find themselves working in both food, drinks and music. Meet Joe O’Leary, former lead singer from the band Fred, now impresario and inn keeper in IMRO award winning venue, Levis’s Corner House in Ballydehob. Joe will be bringing in some special guests from the festival and we’re also joined by husband and wife food and music teams, Audrey McDonald and Tom Dunne and Aoife McElwain and Niall Byrne, aka Nialler9.

 

Theatre of Food is produced by McKennas’ Guides, and brought out in association with Euro-toques Ireland, the European Association of Chefs and Cooks. This year’s Theatre is supported by Failte Ireland.

 

Electric Picnic has always put great food at the centre of the festival and Theatre of Food is at the centre of 2016’s wildest food experience.

 

Line-up includes:

 

ROZ PURCELL - DAVID & STEPHEN FLYNN - KATIE SANDERSON - SUSAN JANE WHITE - CLODAGH MCKENNA - STEPHEN TOMAN - TAKASHI MIYAZAKI - DERRY CLARKE - ROSS LEWIS - GRAHAM NEVILLE - SUNIL GHAI - KEVIN THORNTON - ROBBIE KRAWCZYK - GARY O’HANLON - GAUTHAM IYER - JP MCMAHON - MARTIN SHANAHAN - AUDREY MCDONALD - TOM DUNNE - AOIFE MCELWAIN - NIALL BYRNE - PAUL FLYNN - MAIRE FLYNN - CATHERINE FULVIO - GEAROID LYNCH - KWANGHI CHAN - JOHN MCKENNA - SALLY MCKENNA - OISIN DAVIS - WADE MURPHY - CAROLINE BYRNE - LILY RAMIREZ-FORAN - JONATHAN MCCREA - IVAN VARIAN - JOE O’LEARY - CAROLINE TOBIN - NIALL STOKES - DECLAN MAXWELL - CAITLIN RUTH - KATE LAWLOR - PATRICK RYAN - THE DINGLE COOKERY SCHOOL - SHANNEN BUTLER KEANE - BIRGITTA CURTIN - LESLIE WILLIAMS - SEANEEN SULLIVAN - COFFEEWERK + PRESS - AMERICA VILLAGE APOTHECARY - APRIL DANNAN - BEVERLEY MATHEWS - PAUL WILLIAMS - SAM MCNICHOL - SUSAN BOYLE - JUDITH BOYLE - ALLISON ROBERTS - MARIA KENNEDY - JIM KENNEDY - WILLIAM BARRY - ED HICK - SHAM HANIFA - KEVIN O’TOOLE - JACINTA DALTON - JESSIE KENNEDY - JUSTIN GROUNDS - DANETTE MILNE - MAGS KIRWAN - ALAN KAVANAGH