Ireland’s Holy Foodie Retreat: This Historic Hotel Proves That the Eating Can Be Legendary on the Emerald Isle

Editor’s note: This is the second part in a series on PaperCity Dallas culture/style editor Billy Fong’s adventures in the United Kingdom, attending the wedding of his friend David Farwell. To read part one of this series, click here. 

After a few glorious days in Dublin, I hopped a train to County Cork to check-in to the Ballymaloe House (BTW – I adore that the hotel’s website has information with the coordinates one needs if they come in by helicopter). I was there for the pre-festivities of David and his fiancé Adam Lenehan (whose family roots date back to the Emerald Isle).

The oldest parts in the present Ballymaloe House can be traced back to an Anglo-Norman castle built on the site around 1450.

The Irish institution has been owned by the Allen family for nearly three generations. Myrtle and Ivan Allen bought property in 1948 from the Simpson family whom they had met at a Ballycotton Lifeboat fundraising dinner at Ballymaloe a few years previously.

The couple spent the next 16 years farming and bringing up their children. Myrtle became highly knowledgeable about cooking their produce and began writing a cookery column in the Irish Farmers Journal. In 1964 Myrtle, encouraged by Ivan decided to open Ballymaloe as a restaurant.

An ad was placed in the Cork Examiner that read: Dine in a Historic Country House. Open Tuesday to Saturday. Booking essential. Phone Cloyne 16. And the rest is history.

The food is legendary in Ireland and when I mentioned to those I met in Dublin that I was heading to the Ballymaloe, they either recounted wonderful stories of meals they’d had or that it was on their bucket list to travel to experience the farm to table menu. I decided not to have the five-course menu option my first evening and opted for a la carte Moroccan lentil soup and crab pate which I paired with divine mint and lemon iced tea (I had already drank for three evenings straight in Dublin and knew the next two nights of wedding festivities would be libation filled).

I ended my first culinary encounter with their cheese offerings (Bravo’s Watch What Happens Live often poses the question: “If you had to give up one, what would it be: Cheese or oral sex?” and I’ve now seriously rethought my answer).

Every morning I tried to taste a new “butter” at breakfast. They generally had three to choose from on the beautifully arranged table filled with scones and other decadent baked goods.

I heard some interesting “rumors” of celebrities who had held their weddings or parties at the Ballymaloe from locals in the neighboring Shennegary, but of course when I inquired with the staff they responded that the discretion kept those notables returning again and again and they could not confirm.

Following the wedding, I headed to Cork to catch my Aer Lingus flight to Scotland.

Come back to PaperCity next week to read Fong’s dispatch on his eventful long weekend in Glasgow.