Haute cuisine restaurants in nineteenth and twentieth century Ireland

Abstract:AbstractHistorically, Ireland has not been associated with dining excellence. However, in 2011, the editor of Le Guide du Routard, Pierre Josse, noted that the Irish dining experience was as good, if not better, than anywhere in the world. This was a signal achievement for, as Josse also observed the disastrous nature of Irish public dining thirty years ago, when they first started the Irish edition. Thus it may come as a surprise to many that Ireland had a previous ‘golden age’ of haute cuisine—the benchmark for which was set by Restaurant Jammet which traded in Dublin between 1901 and 1967. Indeed, Ireland experienced an influx of gastro-tourists during ‘the Emergency’ (1939–45), and in the 1950s, The Russell Restaurant joined Restaurant Jammet as one of the most outstanding restaurants in Europe. In addition, both Dublin and Shannon airports housed two of Ireland's finest restaurants in the early 1960s. Cashel, Co. Tipperary, had two Michelin-starred restaurants during the early 1980s. From 1975 to 1988 Cork was the centre of fine dining in Ireland. The opening of Roscoffs in Belfast in 1989 spawned a cluster of Michelin-starred restaurants in Northern Ireland. Restaurant Patrick Guilbaud in Dublin was awarded its first Michelin star also in 1989, signalling a rebirth of fine-dining restaurants in the capital. This paper will discuss the history of Ireland's haute cuisine restaurants, identifying the various phases that led to our current standing: equal to if not better than any global competitors.