John Mathers is meticulous.
How meticulous? Consider this: when he makes you a Shortcross gin and Fever Tree tonic, to which has adds a slice of orange, he also adds ice cubes. But... his ice cubes are made of tonic water, so as you sip through the life-affirming drink, there is none of the dilution that occurs with ordinary, made-of-water ice cubes.
The result? The last time I had a drink as good as the Newforge gin and tonic, it was in the American bar at the Savoy Hotel in London, twenty years ago.
Newforge is that kind of place, and Mr Mathers is that kind of guy. He's been on our radar for a while, and he's been on lots of people's radar for a while, slowly gathering awards and appreciation. The acclaim hasn't affected his ego, for he will quickly and modestly tell you that his cooking is just domestic cooking, not some restaurant flummery. Well, up to a point. The reality is that his cooking has real flair and precision, as you would expect of a chef who makes tonic water ice cubes. A warm salad of roast butternut squash with Hannan's guanciale, walnuts and rocket is both poised and pretty, with all the elements combining perfectly. Smoked hake with chive and caper cream uses the green ingredients in a cream sauce to counterpoint the smoky fish, and a pudding of apple and wild blueberry streusel with salted caramel ice cream is just perfect.
As you enjoy this food and enjoy the cossetting comforts of the house, a moment of deja vu suddenly emerges: you are back twenty years, and you are in the cossetting comfort of Assolas House, just outside Kanturk, in north County Cork.
Twenty years ago, when Joe and Hazel Bourke ran and cooked in Assolas, it was commonplace amongst food lovers to hear it described as “the best country house in Ireland.” And, for several years in the early 1990's, before they closed the house, Assolas was the country house of your dreams: magnificent food, understated luxury, and housekeeping at its zenith. Assolas was grand yet it was also intimate, and there was no artifice or pretentiousness about it.
Today, Mr Mathers and Newforge House offer that visionary utopia. (It helps both houses that they are in fairly non-descript parts of the country – Newforge is on the edge of Derrylin village (chipper; pub; wine shop; Masonic Lodge; dozens of houses in a state of construction); Assolas was close to Kanturk. But Newforge is really a world-unto-itself, and it's difficult, after a magnificent breakfast, to have to get into the car and drive away from this little piece of paradise.
And you can't get that gin and tonic out of your head.
Newforge House, Magheralin, Co Armagh
Tel: +44 (0) 28 92611255
John McKenna
