Myrtle Allen, who died yesterday aged 94, was born just as this Republic began its long and often difficult journey towards finding its place in the world.

We will do our utmost to carry on her incredible legacy.

So passionate was she about Irish produce, she once carried a heavy suitcase stuffed full of locally grown apples on board a flight to New York where she had been invited to deliver a cookery class.

A pioneer who made her home into Michelin star restaurant Food or cooking in Ireland didn’t begin with Myrtle Allen but when it comes to evaluating the very best of modern Irish cuisine, it is near impossible not to establish some link back to the pioneering spirit of this East Cork farmer’s wife who transformed her home into a Michelin star restaurant.

Tributes have been pouring in today from friends of Ballymaloe founder and ‘the mother of modern Irish cooking’, Myrtle Allen, who died earlier today aged 94.

She was the first Irish woman to be awarded a Michelin star, in 1975, and ran an Irish restaurant in Paris.

Myrtle Allen, an award-winning chef who founded Ballymaloe cookery school, has died.

Myrtle Allen has been credited with almost single-handedly creating Irish fine dining by the Lonely Planet travel writers.

The second Kerrygold Ballymaloe Litfest of Food & Wine ended last night where it all began just 48 hours previously, in the ‘Big Shed’ at Ballymaloe House in East Cork.