Remember When

The media today feeds on anniversaries, and, hell, we're no different. This month sees the publication of the tenth edition of our annual Bridgestone 100 Best Guides, to restaurants and places to stay in Ireland.

And what a long strange trip it's been. Back then, Kevin (Thornton) was in Upper Rathmines, Derry (Clarke) was in a basement, Paul and Jeanne (Rankin) were in Roscoff. John (Cooke) was in Polo One, and Liz (Mee) and John (Hayes) had exactly the same room in the Elephant & Castle as they do today.. Maura (Foley) was in The Lime Tree and Myrtle (Allen) was still in the kitchen in Ballymaloe House. Dan (Mullane) was in Adare in the original Mustard Seed. Ken (Buggy) was in Kinsale at The Old Presbytery, but still found time to do the illustrations for the book. Today, he manages to find time to do the illustrations for this site. John and Sally (McKenna) were in a wee house in 4, Halliday Square, in Stoneybatter, Dublin 7, where the local sport involved smashing the windscreen of our ancient Peugeot 104. Just as mean with our awards then as we are today, there were only two Bridgestone Stars in 1992: Ballymaloe House and Roscoff.

The 1992 edition of the 100 Best Restaurants featured Conroy's German-Irish Club in Bundoran (salmon smoked over coffin shavings); Bernadette O'Shea's ground-breaking Truffles restaurant in Sligo (the town still hasn't gotten over the fact that Truffles isn't there any more) and La Vie En Rose in Sandycove. Much-lamented departures such as Truffles, Danby House in Donegal, The Gables in Ardee, Dunworley Cottage in Butlerstown and The Gastrognome in Dublin were all turning out excellent cooking back then.

Some cooks and restaurants have stayed the full decade: Ballymaloe; L'Ecrivain; Longueville House; The Red Bank; The E&C; The China-Sichuan; The Ayumi-Ya, amongst others, but for the most part a survey through the decade shows how murderously difficult a business the restaurant game is: a decade is more than a lifetime in the world of cooking.

Ten editions on, the standards of cooking amongst the 100 Best Restaurants have risen astronomically and gastronomically, which means the books are increasingly difficult to write as we have to make agonising decisions about who makes the final 100 Best.

Ten edition's ago we wrote "Ireland's culinary renaissance is both recent and fast moving. Ten year's ago there were few good places to visit in order to enjoy creative, original cooking. But in the last decade a considerable appreciation of restaurant cooking and restaurant culture has developed, along with an awareness of international standards of cuisine."

A decade on, who could have imagined we would have seen the shocking changes for the better which we can all happily enjoy today? A long, strange trip, for sure, and a happy, creative, and successful one for Irish cooking.

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text © John & Sally McKenna
illustrations © Ken Buggy