Ireland’s most famous country house, Ballymaloe House in East Cork was one of the first to open its doors to guests when Myrtle and her husband, the late Ivan Allen, opened The Yeats Room restaurant in 1964.
Accommodation followed in 1967 and since then a unique network of family enterprises has developed around Ballymaloe House - including not only the farmlands and gardens that supply so much of the kitchen produce, but also a craft and kitchenware shop, a company producing chutneys and sauce, the Crawford Gallery Café in Cork city, and Darina Allen’s internationally acclaimed cookery school.
Yet, despite the fame, Ballymaloe is still most remarkable for its unspoilt charm: Myrtle - now rightly receiving international recognition for a lifetime’s work “recapturing forgotten flavours, and preserving those that may soon die”- is ably assisted by her children, and now their families too.
The house, modestly described as “a large family farmhouse”, is indeed at the centre of the family’s 400 acre farm, but with 30 bedrooms it is a very large house indeed, and one with a gracious nature.
The restaurant is in a series of domestic-sized dining rooms and guests are called to their tables from the conservatory or drawing room, where aperitifs are served. A food philosophy centred on using only the highest quality ingredients is central to everything done at Ballymaloe, where much of the produce comes from their own farm and gardens, and the rest is sourced from the local producers that Myrtle Allen and other members of her family have championed for over half a century.
Jason Fahey has been head chef at Ballymaloe since 2004 and continues the house tradition of presenting simple, uncomplicated food in the ‘good country cooking’ style, which allows the exceptional quality of the ingredients to speak for themselves. Things move up a number of notches in the evening, when daily 7-course dinner menus, offer more sophisticated dishes, including vegetarian options.
The intensely restorative atmosphere of Ballymaloe is remarkable.
The lucky winner of this free competition will have a short break for two people sharing (excluding months of June, July & August & subject to availability), to include:
• 2 nights accommodation
• full Irish breakfast on both mornings
• dinner for two people on one night
Read more about Ballymaloe House on their website.
To enter the competition simply tick the answers to the questions below (you must be a member, click here to join, it's free):
