In Ballinrobe in County Mayo, a town that uncertainly straddles the mores and architecture of this century and the last, there is a strawberry eclair that has your name on it.
The pastry is whisper light, the cream and strawberries combine to offer a suspicion of sweetness, and as a piece of patisserie it is as fine a thing as you will find in Ireland.
Yes, yes, we know. All the way to Ballinrobe for a strawberry eclair? Yeah, it's a no-brainer, isn’t it?. You would go to the ends of the earth for a perfect strawberry eclair. So, Ballinrobe ? That's just down the road.
That strawberry eclair has been made by Yvonne Murphy and it waits for you in Devour Bakery, on Church Lane. Think of the country's great patissiers and pastry cooks - Sarah Webb, Emer Murray, Mary McEvoy, Yseult Janssens - and now add Ms Murphy's name to that pantheon of patisserie and pastry greatness. She has the touch, she has the nous, she is the real deal. She makes a coffee gateau that is as great as that eclair, and the nearest place you will get one to match it is in Paris.
Paris. Ballinrobe. Never thought you would see those two together, did you?
John McKenna
