Eunice Power

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“Eunice Power, one of the driving forces behind the Waterford Food Festival, appeared to have a clone over the weekend, as she kept popping up all over the place – giving a baking course at the Tannery Cookery School, looking after guests at her Powersfield House BB, and cooking up a giant paella for customers at the farmers’ market”.

It may be that Marie-Claire Digby, of The Irish Times, has finally sussed the enigma of Eunice Power of Dungarvan. The reason Mrs Power is able to do all she does is not because she can bi-locate – a culinary Padre Pio, if you like – it's all possible because she has mastered the art of cloning, and sends out a brigade of Eunices when circumstances – like the Waterford Food Festival – demand it.

Phew! What a relief. We don't need to feel inadequate anymore in the face of Mrs Power's prodigious energies and accomplishments: hostess; chef; teacher; caterer; author; organiser; authority on porridge; all-round good-egg; centre of the universe. It's comforting to know that there is a non-human explanation after all.
Eunice Power studied hotel management and then learnt the business the hard way, with stints in Switzerland and then with Forte hotels in England. She opened Powersfield House in 2001, after working in Dublin, and was straight away into the Bridgestone 100 Best Guides, where we bandied about terms such as “benchmark”, and “pitch perfect”. As a cook, and as a hospitality provider, she doesn't understand limits: she can cook a paella for a thousand at a festival or dinner for four in her house, and there will be no difference in the two: both will be perfect, as perfect as she can make them.

She can do this because generosity is in her blood: one of the most memorable letters we received over the last decade concerned the visit of Fiona – then working in Shanghai – to Powersfield House. It was a dark and stormy night, Fiona turned up without a reservation, and when she wrote to us afterwards to describe her happy experience staying and eating in Powersfield, she said simply: “People like Eunice should be treasured”.

Eunice Power: a Waterford treasure. For sure.

Powersfield House, Ballinamuck West, Dungarvan, County Waterford
058 45594