Restaurant review: Ballymaloe is still the big thing in Irish food

Sun, 09 Feb, 2025 - 02:00

Joe McNamee

Ballymaloe House
Ballymaloe More, Shanagarry, Co Cork, P25 Y070
Tel: 021 4652531
ballymaloe.ie
Open: Monday to Saturday, 6.30pm-9pm; Sunday lunch, 12.30pm-2pm
The bill: Five courses, plus tea/coffee, €100pp

As attention spans diminish daily and what fleeting, fickle focus remains is almost entirely forward-facing in its frenetic pursuit of the latest ‘next big thing’, Ballymaloe House and its founder Myrtle Allen’s pre-eminent place in Ireland’s culinary history grows ever more blurred to each new generation.

If you need a history lesson, the East Cork country house hotel is where modern Irish hospitality began back in 1964 with Allen’s rather coy ad in the then Cork Examiner reading ‘Dine in a Country House’ — only a phone number provided to those seeking further detail.

A decade later, Myrtle Allen’s Michelin-starred Ballymaloe House was globally renowned and had kickstarted the first stirrings of a modern Irish food revolution.

Myrtle’s culinary philosophy of placing her larder of premium seasonal, local produce at the heart of her cooking, eschewing ‘cheffy’ fiddle faddle to allow it shine on the plate, made her the first locavore in world hospitality decades before the term existed.

That philosophy remains deeply embedded in contemporary Irish cuisine’s DNA.

Dubliner Dervilla O’Flynn completed the cookery course in 1987, in the now equally world-renowned Ballymaloe Cookery School, and began her own long and storied career in hospitality working under Myrtle in the Ballymaloe House kitchen.

She finally returned 31 years later, the year of Myrtle’s death, to take over as head chef.

I fell in love with taramasalata in Greece in my early 20s, a holiday romance that flamed on for several years in the Greek restaurants of north London but, on returning to Ireland, the passion paled in the face of industrially-produced and greatly inferior renditions of the classic dip that
occasionally cropped up in Irish outlets of the British multiples.

It is several decades since I’ve last enjoyed it when I spy Taramasalata with Shanagarry Cucumber & Sourdough Crisps on the first course.

The glistening sleek emulsion, lush with good olive oil, is anchored by a keenly pitched briny undertow courtesy of smoked cod roe.

It dissolves the decades in a single delightful mouthful, near perfection when dredged with stalks of crisp, bright cucumber, La Daughter, meanwhile indulges her fruit fetish with a serenely well-balanced Melon Sorbet, flavours delightfully underplayed.

LD’s next order is Garden Courgette Tempura with Romesco Sauce — an exquisitely ethereal batter making for a precise and crisp coating as a lovely grainy romesco, bright with tomato’s sugar and acidity, adds layers of complexity.

I only have eyes for Ballycotton Day Boat Lobster Tagliolini with Fennel and Lemon. A blissful eating experience, nutty in-house pasta pairs with meaty chunks of lobster, as a graceful filigree of fennel and lemon lifts the dish to an entirely different level.

My Free Range Whitegate Guinea Fowl, with Marsala Jus, Garryhinch Mushroom Duxelles and Braised Hispi Cabbage, is tender, juicy, succulent, yet booming with gamey flavour, while LD’s Sirloin and Fillet of Beef (from legendary Midleton butcher Frank Murphy) is equally fine and fulsome with a luscious Bordelaise Sauce, as Horseradish Crème Fraîche provides keen counterpoint to rich beefy notes.

A steaming bowl of Kingston Organic Potatoes with Nasturtium Butter is a meal in itself, making a mockery of the notion that this dish might ever be referred to as a ‘side’.

Next up is a selection of Irish Cheese with Membrillo and Ballymaloe Cheese Biscuits, including a deliciously creamy Durrus.

Some time after our visit, I put my hand into a jacket pocket one evening to find a dried fig leaf I had picked in Ballymaloe House’s walled garden on the day we dined.

Fig leaf aroma — a sweet, heady musk, paradoxically pure and decadent at the same time — is one of my favourite smells and only intensifies as the leaf dries.

It naturally transports me immediately back to Ballymaloe and the legendary dessert trolley marshalled by head pastry chef JR Ryall, which on the night we dine includes an exquisite Fig Leaf Ice Cream.

It also features Chocolate Choux au Craquelin, Walnut and Garden Pear Meringue, Raspberry and Mint Jelly, Pistachio Langue De Chat, and Autumn Berry and Sweet Geranium Leaf Salad.

LD is in heaven, sampling each and every one. I largely dedicate myself to one of the most iconic of Ballymaloe House dishes, Carrageen Moss Pudding, which divines sublime elegance in unadorned simplicity.

I have eaten many times at Ballymaloe House over the years but, under O’Flynn and Ryall, the kitchen is utterly reinvigorated, these former acolytes of Myrtle bringing a wonderful contemporary sensibility without ever veering away from the aforementioned Ballymaloe philosophy.

O’Flynn is an especially gifted and empathetic cook and chef, introducing ingredients, spices, and recipes that may not have even been around during Myrtle’s heyday but deploying them with restraint and consummate skill in a manner that would undoubtedly have pleased her late, great mentor.

It has never been the Ballymaloe way to slavishly follow the latest culinary fashions but this 61-year-old East Cork kitchen is currently delivering what has to be some of the finest contemporary Irish food to be had in any restaurant in the country — could Ballymaloe House
actually be the ‘next big thing’ in Irish food all over again?

I’m being facetious — Ballymaloe House is and has always been the ‘biggest thing’ in Irish food.

The verdict: