When Myrtle Allen opened a restaurant in her dining room, the self-taught chef would cook for guests on her Aga range. Today, 50 years on, the Ballymaloe brand is world-renowned.

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 herself into a Michelin star chef.

WHEN I first came to Shanagarry crabs were considered to be a nuisance by most fishermen because they found their way into the lobster pots and were much less lucrative to sell. Tommy Sliney, the legendary Ballycotton man who sold his fish from a donkey and cart on the pier, occasionally brought us a few, and it was always a cause for celebration. We’d prepare all the other ingredients and then my father-in-law, Ivan Allen, would mix and taste the Dressed Crab.

A FEW weeks ago I flew to London at the invitation of BBC Radio to participate in Veg Talk.

THERE’S plenty to potter around with at The Glebe, Kilmahon, in Shanagarry in Cork, the home of the Pearce family of craft workers and potters and set to leave family hands after half a century.