Culinary mischief

WHEN Seamus O’Connell washed up on these shores many years ago he seemed an exotic bird of paradise. And, thankfully, so he remains.

The food he produces at the Ivory Tower reads more exciting than some of the mundane, set-piece offerings at less adventurous restaurants tastes.

His arrival was as if Dan Carter forsook his career with the All Blacks and decided to play football in the West Kerry league with An Gaeltacht.

Even though there is the usual risk of confusing fashion with progress it is not unfair to say that 25 or more years ago the joy of eating out in Ireland too often depended on the quality of the company. In the interim, affluence, however fleeting, pushed the boundaries but without people like O’Connell rattling the cage — and bringing his “culinary art and mischief” to bear — we might well still judge a Sunday lunch of pre-cooked turkey and ham by the generosity of the kitchen rather than the quality of the meal. Four scoops good, two scoops bad.

It would be interesting to see how someone like O’Connell, who serves blackened shark with banana ketchup, might reinvent turkey and ham. He did not have it on the menu the night we — DW and I — visited and it was none the poorer for that. He did have the blackened shark with banana ketchup.

If there’s a version of snow blindness caused by menus with almost too many options then the Ivory Tower list of starters will produce the first symptoms. Gravlax, lambs’ kidneys, risotto nero with lobster, rabbit with prune jelly and porter, asparagus tempura, sushi — even if a tad less delicate than would pass muster in Tokyo — and conger eel sausage with sauerkraut plus a plate of tofu and courgette dengaku were the options.

How interesting our presidential election might be if we had a range of options half as diverse and stimulating as that.

DW chose the asparagus tempura. It was a lovely mixture of that almost uniquely loamy taste of asparagus and brittle crispiness. Asparagus has a simple/complex taste very hard to improve on — fresh wild bass and good raspberries are others — but the tempura treatment did enhance it.

I chose sushi. The tastes and textures were excellent but the formality of presentation that can make sushi such a visual treat was absent. It might be faulted for that but it need not be, because the emphasis is always on the food, nothing else.

This focus gives visitors an opportunity to play a unique table game. Unlike most of his contemporaries O’Connell uses a bobbery pack of ware and it is most unusual if any two courses are served in related dishes. Organise a sweepstake and the first person to have two courses served in matching wear is the winner.

DW chose a rhubarb and Early Grey sorbet for her second course. I had a bisque of lemon grass and crab which was, by the standards of the house, flat and vacant.

There was a choice of nine main courses and DW opted for an excellent fillet of calf steaks with anchovies and blue cheese. An unexpected crochet of taste and texture but one that worked very well. I had lamb which is surprisingly absent from a lot of menus today, especially as the best of Irish lamb is one of the really wonderful foodstuffs produced in this country. Described as Spring lamb maltasie with saffron, anise and mint, it had the pertness and presence that only good cooking can bring out in good food.

Desserts were very satisfying; a good crème brûlée with raspberries for DW and a tart of cherries and apricot for me. Our wine was Quinta do Portal Reserva 2007 (€33) It was grand but nothing more spectacular than most wines in this price bracket.

The Ivory Tower does not accept credit cards which, like the absence of lamb, is a growing trend. Dinner is set at €50 and a degustation can be had for €70. The restaurant’s future may be uncertain as it is, like so many others, on the market. If you think you’d enjoy the mischief, don’t wait too long and organise the crockery sweepstake.