Ireland has an agricultural system that is based
around a small diverse premium agricultural
system. Today in Ireland there are currently
112,000 farms; in the UK, on four times the land
mass, there are 118,000 farms. Farms in Ireland
are smaller and therefore don’t have the huge
industrialised farming system you find in France
or Spain. Travel the countryside there and
you find huge hectares of open fields without
hedges. Ross feels there is great diversity in
Ireland’s natural habitat and in terms of its food
production.
He cites the Achill Black Faced lamb produced
on Achill Island, eating shrub and herbs and
killed out at 14/15 kilos, not 22. The meat is
sweet and beautiful, if this was in France or
Spain, he continued, they would have been
upselling its uniqueness as a product and
charging a premium price.
The Irish didn’t do that initially but rather tried
to compete in commodity agriculture, as a
result many of these unique products went for
export and were shipped out of the country.
That has changed now, the emergence of
artisan producers has put more value on
unique Irish products and their potential value
is now being fully realised.
Ross highlights the new confidence among
young Irish chefs; they don’t feel they need
to cook French style or fusion food. There
was a time that Irish chefs would look to
Europe for influence, because everythingthere was considered more exciting or
better. Now Ireland has entered an era
where influenced by iconic chefs there is
more inventive use of Irish produce. An
example from his own menu includes,
stuffed pigs tail with lobster or seaweed
jelly infused with shaved smoked haddock,
poached lobster, picked seaweed and an
oyster cream. Using an almost Japanese
approach to food and utilising ingredients
sourced from within 30 to 40 miles of
the restaurant, Ross feels it is having the
confidence to source your own produce and
to use it in a natural way is the definition of
new Irish cuisine.
The Irish have stopped copying other food
cultures; they have stopped doing fusion, or
“con-fusion” he stated, with an air of Irish wit.
Foreign journalists are now only interested in
coming to Ireland to see what is happening
with local natural produce. That’s the new
food story helping the Irish become more
introspective about the produce available
here.
In Ross’s opinion, in the last 3-5 years
especially, there is something enormously
exciting happening in terms of Irish food. The
standard has been raised tremendously and
there are a lot of new young Chefs who, after
the recession, have had the opportunity to find
real estate and to open restaurants. The barrier
to entry has been lowered and there have been
many new entrants into the market.
Ireland does not have a René Redzepi or Ferran
Adrià to turn the world’s media spotlight on it;
Ross feels it is the food itself that is creating the
recognition and attracting the attention. Ireland
is made up of a small tight knit food community
whose passion, matched by recognition from
the International food press, is driving the
current revolution in Irish cooking.Highlighting Ireland’s talented young Chefs,
the generation who are cooking with
Irish ingredients, creating and defining a
successful style of Irish cuisine; it is useful
to look at the recent successes at local and
international level.
In November 2017, Conor halpenny, chef
de partie, who recently joined the team
at Chapter One, headed the field at a very
competitive Euro Toques competition to find
the best young chef in Ireland. With his sweet
dish of set rice, fermented apple, yoghurt and
malt, Conor took a standard Irish recipe and
by using green saffron and basmati rice with
a jelly made from organic Irish apples, created
a modern version of a traditional dish which
won him the competition.