Jacq and Eithne have the real gra for good food, for Cork food. They value the things close to them – Ardsallagh goat's cheese; Gubbeen cured meats; Kanturk black pudding; Ballycotton spuds, to name just a few – and their cooking acts, then, as a cipher for the character of the ingredient. They like to let the food shine as itself, unlike others who transform and manipulate ingredients until they are barely recogniseable.
We admire their simplicity, and also their formidable energy, which has sustained Jacques through three decades as one of Cork city's best places to eat. We also like what they have done to the food in the Woodford Bar, on Paul Street, where the cooking is, again, clean, true, unpretentious, an asset to the city they have served for so long.
