John McKenna reviews Deasy’s Harbour Bar & Seafood Restaurant
Ring, Clonakilty, West Cork
In Caitlin Ruth’s cooking, the sum is greater than the parts.
By the time you have worked your way through every element of a dish such as “Ling with pork belly, pan-fried endive and white wine sauce”, you are convinced that ling is the best fish in the sea; endive isn’t metallic and hard, just deliciously umami; pork belly is food for the Gods; and white wine sauce is nectar, put on this earth for the sole purpose of making us happy.
It’s only when you pause to reflect on the simplicity of the ingredients – ling? ling! are you serious?! – and you notice then the way in which Ms Ruth has gathered all these elements together with simple artfulness, that the truth strikes you: the sum of the dish is so much greater than the parts.
And that is transformation. And that is art.
Something similar happens also in the room that is Deasy’s Harbour Bar, in little Ring, just outside Clonakilty. Sit down with a group of friends at any evening or at a busy weekend, and the room is straight away a place for celebration. It doesn’t matter a jot that you have nothing specific to celebrate.
Of course, what triggers that urge to celebrate is the cooking, and it’s further encouraged by the wonderfully astute service from the young women on the floor. We have written recently about the Restaurant Zeitgeist, that energy that makes a dining room the room that everyone wants to be in. Deasy’s has the RZ: once past the swing door, you are where you want to be.
And then, what to eat? Everything. The poise and generosity of all the dishes we ate with a bunch of friends recently showed a cook at her peak: white bean, Parmesan and rosemary soup; Sally Barnes’ smoked mackerel with tomato and caper salad, potato cake and grain mustard mayonnaise; an incredible carrot mustard with duck rillettes and pickled raisins; crab claws with a lime, chilli and coriander butter; roasted squash with Toonsbridge mozzarella and herb croutons were the starters.
Along with the ling and pork belly we ate: East Ferry chicken with Korean chilli oil and sesame cabbage; monkfish and hake with saffron, Pernod and tomato broth and green chilli oil; potato gnocchi with Crozier Blue cheese sauce, toasted almonds, roasted tomatoes and beetroot.
The only dish we didn’t try was brill with fennel and smoked pollack risotto.
Ms Ruth’s metier is clear: she likes the contrast of sharp and sweet – fennel versus chilli, the endive with the pork belly; she likes a supporting note to be full of surprises – that carrot mustard, destined to be the most copied side dish this year; her vegetarian dishes are full of imagination. And the food has wonderful clarity, with each element fully expressive, and painterly pretty.
Overall, her food is both provocative and yet consoling. Overall, Ms Ruth’s cooking is amongst the best in the country.
Tel: (023) 883 5741 deasyrestaurant@hotmail.com
