Sally's blog

There are 2 chefs to be discovered in Richard Milnes, of Dillon’s Restaurant in little Timoleague, in West Cork.
One is Richard Milnes, Modernist. This guy likes to throw curve balls at everything he gets his hands on. He reinvents brandade as a smoked haddock and salt cod creation, served with pickled carrots and tarragon. He gives the treatment to ham hock terrine by working some ox tongue in there to shake it up. The dude serves celeriac: as a steak.

Eamon Barrett enjoys some nice cooking in Wexford’s The Duck Terrace, but wonders why everything takes so long to arrive.

The camaraderie in a professional kitchen reaches its zenith in the accord between the head chef and his sous chef. Gary O’Hanlon gets into the psychology of it all.

“What do you want from this job” says the HR manager of the Galway Bay Hotel, Salthill, circa Jan 2005.

“Bobby’s job” I replied. (Bobby was the Executive Chef)

Sean Ring’s chickens will restore your faith in fowl.

John McKenna is transported by Kevin Murphy’s sublime, artful food in Dingle’s idás.

Sally McKenna enjoys another rock-steady, uber-professional kitchen delivering smart modern food in Northern Ireland.

The opening of Noble, a brand new restaurant in Holywood, Co. Down, was anticipated with much excitement in the pretty coastal town just outside Belfast. When Saul McConnell announced with chef Pearson Morris (both from Michael Deane’s stable of restaurants) that the collaboration was due to open upstairs in the former long-established Iona Bistro, there was a lot of chat locally along the lines of: “Is it open yet?”

John McKenna reels in the years and finds himself back in Daft Eddie’s in County Down, where it all began.

Daft Eddie’s on Sketrick Island in County Down was an oasis. In the Northern Ireland of the early 1980’s, the cooking that Nick and Kathy Price prepared at this island destination seemed like little short of a miracle. Their food had: Freshness. Originality. Colour. Impishness. Flavour.
In the land of the beef sausage and the soda farl, the Prices brought technicolour to a monochrome food culture.

Northern Ireland’s big year of food and drink gets the classy monument it deserves.

First things first: Belfast on a Plate: A flavour of the city in recipes and stories is a thing of beauty, a most gorgeous book. Produced by David Pauley and his team at The Studio Publishing Company, the book does full justice to the powerful creativity that powers the city’s dining culture, and it captures the energy, the sweat, and the sexiness that makes Belfast such an exciting place to eat.

Joyce Brownless is mistress of all she surveys in Scarva’s stunning Blackwell House.

"I never remember not being able to bake a cake or make pastry” says Joyce Brownless, the owner of Blackwell House, and the force behind what has quickly become Northern Ireland’s leading luxury guesthouse, a hidden escape in the backwater of the rolling drumlin hills near the village of Scarva in South County Down.

Brain McCann is the archetypal Belfast masterchef. Sally McKenna orders the salt and chilli squid yet again.

Brian McCann is a masterchef. As a cook, he shows that he really understands crispy, but he also understands silky, and crunchy and smooth and chunky as well. His food is so fine that you can’t see the process. You just get the best tastes, the best textures.