Menu: Well-earned Michelin awards for Cork chefs
Chef Ahmet Dede, Ireland’s only recipient this year of a new Michelin Star for his Baltimore restaurant (with co-proprietor, Maria Archer), Dede at the Customs House, in West Cork
The Menu found it both poignant and uplifting to see the joy and relief on the faces of so many Michelin-starred chefs during last Monday’s online Michelin Guide awards ceremony as they either retained or even received stars after what has been an otherwise truly awful year for the hospitality sector — a much-needed morale boost for an industry that has brought so much joy into our lives through the years.
While The Menu was pleased to see further worthy additions to the national list of Bib Gourmand recipients it was a particular delight to see Leeside newcomer, Goldie — a little seafood bar on Oliver Plunkett St, run by head chef Aishling Moore in tandem with Market Lane Group executive chef, Stephen Keohoe — join that band, for Moore and Kehoe have performed like absolute troupers through The Covid crisis.
It was an especial delight for The Menu to see Dede at the Customs House, in Baltimore, receive Ireland’s only new star and its first, as co-proprietors, chef Ahmet Dede and Maria Archer, defied all odds to deliver splendidly in 2020, ensuring some of The Menu’s finest dining experiences of a very fraught year, finest comfort fare for much-battered mind, body and battered souls.
Finally, it is no mere parochialism for The Menu to state that he can think of few finer recipients of the inaugural Mentor Chef Award than another Leesider, Ross Lewis, of Chapter One, who recalled its arrival for The Menu: “I was talking to them as planned on the Zoom call when one of the inspectors came on and said, ‘you’ve probably noticed my face is blanked out. The reason is I’ve been to your restaurant many times and want to come back and don’t want you to recognise me but we are ringing to tell you that we want to give you this new award'. It’s a great award, definitely one of the big awards for me and I’ve been receiving messages from far and wide.”
The Menu only wishes to add to the encomiums — for Lewis’s contribution to the Irish hospitality sector has been immense: from the many award-winning chefs, including Michelin-starred, who have passed through his kitchens; to his promotional and ambassadorial work on behalf of the sector; and to his sterling promotion of finest Irish produce as delivered on the plate as some of the finest Irish food of the last several decades, all adding up to ensuring Chapter One has consistently remained one of the finest restaurants in the country.
One of the more heartening impacts of The Covid has been how short food supply chains delivering finest local, seasonal Irish fare have proven to be infinitely more flexible and even more dependable than the large industrial food and multiple retail sectors that rely on imported monocultural produce. And The Menu is delighted to welcome another vital little cog to a growing local food network, FARMSY.IE — a home delivery service now covering a slowly expanding region between their base in Bandon, right up to Cork city and north to Blarney. The brainchild of Michael and Carmen O’Sullivan, who include their own excellent Just Laid free-range eggs in a selection of fine local produce, as much of it as possible organic or chemical free, also includes including Duhallow Organics organic meats (pork, beef and lamb), vegetables (Food for Humans, Horizon Farms, John Twomey, Stuart Kingston and Ancient Organics), Arbutus Sourdough breads, Gloun Cross Dairy and West Cork Coffee. The Menu was especially delighted with his own recent delivery, and particularly intrigued by some superb Yacon yams from organic grower Colman Power, in Innishannon.
Last March when initial lockdown, including 2km restrictions, kicked in, the normally lively Cork suburb of Blackrock, like so many other places around the country, shut down overnight. The Marina riverside walk along with the Blackrock to Passage Greenway (normally one of the busiest greenways in the country) were at first strangely quiet but gradually trepidatious Blackrovians began to emerge in increasing numbers until a jaunt along the Marina became an integral part of the local daily routine.
Chief among its attractions was the arrival of a new food truck, Cortado Coffee, at the city end of the Marina, when most outlets in the city were still shuttered, offering good coffees made with beans from their own Roastery. A cortado is an espresso/hot milk combo that is very popular in Spain and Portugal and The Menu’s preferred caffeinated pick-me-up whenever abroad in Iberia. Cortado Coffee proprietor, Alan Cashman, too fell in love with the cortado while studying in Grenada some moons ago.
A long career in the coffee industry followed before Cashman began planning his own business in the food service sector... until The Covid forced his hand in what has turned out to be a most fortuitous manner as the now lengthy queues for his fine brews amply testify, the Cortado truck becoming wildly popular once limits expanded to 5km and then 20km. And the now car-free Marina has morphed into Leeside’s own version of the Bois de Boulogne, teeming with walkers, strollers, cyclists and flâneurs from all parts.
An online shop has now followed and for those currently restricted from fetching up in person, is offering two very nice Colombian roasts: a Las Brisas AA (Caturra, Colombia, Castillo) — a lovely sweet chocolate and orange brew that makes for a fine citric filter coffee and a lovely espresso; while El Jordan A (Planadas, Tolima, Colombia) sports nutty, citric and chocolate caramel notes, especially good in milky concoctions.
