The subtle savouriness that characterises Wade Murphy’s cooking in 1826, his light, bright new dining room in Adare, County Limerick, sends your mind racing for points of reference, and they all seem to point north from Adare. Ian Orr, from Brown’s in Derry? The late Robbie Millar?
No, the chef whose subtle savouriness is echoed by Mr Murphy’s style is none other than the great Paul Rankin.
Like Rankin, Murphy brings deftness and distinctiveness to every dish, from the unctuousness of 36-hour pork belly with creamed cabbage, to the enlivening brick-fried chicken with Asian slaw, to the sea-salty mix of oven-baked organic salmon with clams and mussels. He is a cook who shows that he knows when enough is enough.
Knowing when enough is enough is shorthand for saying that Mr Murphy has good judgement: there is no more on the plate than is needed and the courses glide from punchy starters to satisfyingly narcotic sugar confections for dessert, faultless and seemingly effortless all the way.
But the effort is simply hidden. A starter of warm fried chicken livers has pickles, piccalilli aioli and good green leaves from Springfield Organics. It’s delightful not just because its perfectly executed, but because it’s so detailed and so proudly unfashionable: cordon bleu executed with molecular precision.
He lavishes that detail onto everything: a little dish of potatoes are so moreish, with their mandolined scallions and plenty of butter, that they are irresistible; the tomato gazpacho with Liscannor crab cocktail has that hot hit of tabasco, whilst brown-bread baked Castletownbere scallops in the shell with air-dried Connemara ham with a soft herb crust is one of the dishes of the year.
The cheese board is good – Knockdrinna; Wicklow Blue; Cratloe Hills and Dunbarra – and both sticky toffee pudding and elderflower and creme fraiche brulée are textbook correct whilst also giving the pastry chef space to show what can be done with these great warhorses.
Elaine Murphy runs the room as if she has been here for a decade rather than two months, and Mr Murphy’s cooking has a grace and modesty that will keep him in this lovely space for the next decade, all being well. All already is well at 1826.
John McKenna
