Capturing the Essence of Ashford Castle.
Everyone has preconceptions about Ashford Castle, the historic Old Grey Lady of the West. Be prepared to have those preconceptions challenged.
Think of Ashford Castle as a sun, around which are orbiting a number of diverse satellites. Those satellites are piloted by a crew of extraordinarily talented people who together create a solar system of exceptional Irish food and hospitality.
Liam Finnegan is Executive Chef at the Castle, overseeing a team of fifty cooks. He took up the role two years ago, and has driven Ashford into a new realm of creative, modern Irish cookery that is powered by the energy of the seasons. Hyper-local and hyper-seasonal, the food is as far from conventional hotel cooking as you can get.
Start your sojourn with Mrs Tollman’s Club Sandwich and a bowl of Seafood Chowder in the Drawing Room. Beatrice Tollman is the founder of the Red Carnation hotel group and a very keen cook, and her signature style is evident throughout the estate. You won’t find a better club sandwich, or a better bowl of chowder. At every possible opportunity, the kitchen team are aiming to knock it out of the park.
Charles Hindi is the supremely talented Head Baker/Chef Boulanger, and here he is measuring out the croissants that he bakes each morning for breakfast. Fresh croissants for breakfast?! Yes, and fresh pain au chocolat and fresh Kouign Amann, because Charles hails from Brittany.
Afternoon tea in many hotels is cliche incarnate. Served in the Connaught Room, the Ashford tea is a masterclass in the art of patisserie, drinks, and the art of finger food. It’s also a blast, which is why a young woman at another table was there to celebrate her 18th birthday. We knew this because the team suddenly turned up with a little cake with a candle and serenaded her with “Happy Birthday”. At dinner, no fewer than six tables were celebrating either birthdays or anniversaries. Ashford is where the Irish go for that big day to remember.
Barry Lynch trained as a butcher, and worked as Head Chef in the Castle. Now he’s taken on the role as Ashford’s in-house butcher, where he takes responsibility for the special dry aging room where the beef and game is slowly brought to maturation. The dry-aged beef fillet and slow-cooked beef cheek is a recommended option on the evening menu in the George V Restaurant.
Alex Lavarde, the Head Gardener, is a key component of the team, and is working to institute a regime of Korean gardening to improve both the soil and the organoleptic health of the crops that come from that soil, and then go straight to the kitchen. April’s white asparagus is emblematic of the efforts the garden team aspire to.
Hillary Casey is the potentate of potions in Ashford, a wizard with elixirs she distills from gorse flowers, and pineapple skins, and magnolia leaves and cherry blossoms, and just about everything that grows. These extraordinary flavours then supercharge almost every dish created in the kitchens of the Castle.
Wine Program Manager Robert Bowe sources the castle’s wine list from no fewer than 27 wine suppliers, including Bouchard Finlayson, a South African estate owned by the Tollman family, who own the Castle. Head Sommelier Paul Fogarty (above) conducts tastings in the Castle’s wine cellars, where he might serve you a glass of Burgundy produced by local Mayo wine superstar Roisin Curley.
Paula Stakelum, Global Director of Chocolate and Patisserie is known to one and all as Paula Pastry, thanks to her brilliance with the sweet things of life. This Easter egg honours Dingle the Owl, an Ashford resident of long-standing. Each egg is hand-painted to replicate the patterns of Dingle’s feathers.
Some of the service team have worked at the castle for as much as 50 years – one would be Martin Gibbons, who celebrated his half century just last year. The criteria for hiring is obvious: you just have to be charming.
The bird boxes on the estate’s forest echo the hotel’s bedrooms, with a numbered box for every room, so as a guest you always have an avian double. Storm Eowyn dealt the forest a mighty blow, bringing down many of the trees planted by the Guinness family more than a century ago.
Niall Rochford is Managing Director of Ashford Estate, and everyone on the team – everyone! – calls him Mr Rochford. Respect! In Ashford’s solar orbit Niall is the lunar power that directs the tides of ambition in the team he has created during his tenure at Ashford.
The crew from Ashford Castle will be creating a Gourmet Evening at Lismore Castle as part of the Waterford Festival of Food, on Friday April 25th. The dinner will be followed by an after dinner conversation with the team, led by John McKenna.
On Saturday 26th the team will showcase a Masterclass of Wild Food from the Wild West, at The Tannery Cookery School.
John and Sally McKenna were guests of Ashford Castle while researching this feature.
