Although not new on your bookseller’s shelves, Professor Cullen of the School of Hospitality Administration at Boston University did not live to see this magnificent book achieve great notoriety.  He died suddenly shortly after its publication.  He lives on through the beautiful prose he wrote as the introduction to this, the epitome of great Irish cuisine.

 Cullen takes us through a journey from the earliest days of Irish cooking where pits were dug, lined with heated stones then filled with water and large joints of meat were suspended in the boiling water.  Ireland continues to be a meat-loving country even though its island geography provides an abundance of seafood.  The monks of the Middle Ages added more lore to the culinary history and , of course, the potato famine contributed its bit to the fascinating foodlore that Cullen traces so elegantly.  Now with the new chefs of Kenmare of County Kerry and Kinsdale of County Cork leading the way, Ireland has become a gourmet’s destination of choice. 

HISTORY TO RECIPES

Nicely divided into sections covering the gamut of Irish cuisine, one could easily select one item from each section to create a truly elegant six to eight course dinner that would delight any and all guests.  Cullen tries to make the point that Irish cooking is not overly influenced by other ethnic cuisines but it’s hard not to recognize the French influence in many of the recipes.  That’s really not too surprising, after all, it’s often been said that “the Irish fought with the British and traded with the French;” and in regard to wine – Ireland loves Bordeaux.  Many of the early chateau owners and wine traders of Bordeaux were Irish. After all, isn’t Haut-Brion really O’Brien?  Ireland also loves its traditional Mead, honey wine, and it is featured in many recipes.

My favorites include Molly Malone Smokies (a wonderful little baked appetizer of shrimp, fish, tomatoes and cheese), a Bacon-and-Leek Flan, Leek and Cashel Blue Cheese Soup, Dublin Bay Prawn Bisque, Ballymaloe Steak-and-Oyster Pie, Grilled Guinness-marinated Sirloin Steaks with Colcannon (a potato-cabbage dish often with little surprise parchment wrapped coins or rings tucked inside), traditional Irish Soda Bread and a finishing touch of Paddy’s Irish Whiskey Cake or Bread-and-Butter Pudding with Bushmill’s Whiskey Sauce.  Ah, one would think they’re back on the ‘old sod.’

The recipes come from a variety of Irish chefs and the inns and restaurants now gaining fame in Ireland.  Whether any of these chefs are still at the establishments listed or not is immaterial, they represent the best of what Ireland has to offer in elegant cooking.  The book is filled with wonderful pictures by photographer Ran Manville – if only my kitchen efforts could look so good! 

There are several other Irish cookbooks, some with more traditional recipes, some less detailed than this, but you can’t go wrong with Elegant Irish Cooking – Cullen has done his country  proud.


Dave Ethridge is a free-lance wine writer, a wine columnist with the View Newspapers in southeastern Michigan and the Director of the Lapeer Chapter of Tasters Guild International.