Just before leaving London for my Spanish holiday I was treated to a truly Irish culinary experience at Selfridges. Held at the Corner restaurant, the dinner was part of Meet the Makers – Meet the Chefs, a series of one-off dining events featuring some of the British Isles’ most exciting chefs. The Taste of Ireland evening meal featured five stunning dishes (with matching wines) created by chef Mark Moriarty.
Mark started his career early at the age of 15 working at The Chart House in Co. Kerry before joining The Greenhouse restaurant in Dublin. During the summer of 2013 he completed stages at both The Ledbury and Restaurant Tom Aikens in London.
Earlier this year, Mark was awarded the San Pellegrino Young Chef of The Year award, a global talent search to find the best Young Chef in the world. Mark Moriarty represented Ireland and the UK at the awards and beat off competition from 19 young chefs with a vegetarian dish of celeriac baked in barley, which I had the pleasure to try during this dinner.
“With my signature dish, I wanted to capture the essence of Ireland and present humble, locally sourced ingredients like celeriac and barley in a unique way.” [Mark Moriarty – The Independent]
Our appetite was wet by a warm brioche bread and two inventive snacks:
Fermented potato cigars with an scallop’s shell full of aioli
Potato bread with pickled veal tongue
During the 5-course tasting menu we were served matching wines, with the exception of the first course – Beef, radish, oyster – which was paired with a smooth and fresh sake. I really enjoyed this tartare beef, one of my favourite dishes of the evening.
The second course was House smoked salmon, baked potato, leek, egg – a very interesting dish as the salmon had been smoked during the day inside wooden wine boxes placed on Selfridges’ rooftop. The salmon was paired with a dry 2011 Riesling from Austria.
The next course was the star of the dinner, the dish that got Mark the San Pellegrino award: Celeriac, hay, hazelnut.
The celeriac was marinated in miso and haulage for ten days, then baked in barley and fermented hay and served with hazelnut emulsion and butter sauce. This was a spectacular dish, paired with a fruity 2012 Beaujolais wine.
Of the next course – Pig, bacon, cabbage, parsley sauce – I loved the tender pig’s neck meat and the barbecued cabbage. This meat dish was paired with a full bodied 2013 Anima Negra wine from Mallorca.
The last course was a dessert – Guinness porridge. I don’t like rice pudding, but despite my expectations, I loved this flavoured dessert with the added texture of toasted barley. The dessert was paired with a 2008 Ice Cider from Quebec.
Petit fours of Spiced fudge with hot whiskey gel and coffee completed the dinner.
I thoroughly enjoyed this dinner set in the pleasant setting of the Corner Restaurant and Champagne Bar. It was a pleasure to meet Mark and listen to him as he introduced each course and praised his team and mentors. I have no doubt this young chef will have a long and successful career ahead of him!
Despite being only 23 years old, Mark was very humble about winning the prestigious award and spoke about his hopes of using the publicity from the award to shine the culinary spotlight on his home country of Ireland. What is surely coming next for Mark is a lot of travelling: he is taking the Taste of Ireland menu to Milan next and afterwards to Melbourne! As he takes his menu abroad, Mark is of course going to tweak his signature dishes and introduce seasonal, locally grown ingredients. He is looking forward to the challenges and the opportunity to promote his home country around the world.
Disclaimer: I was a guest of Tourism Ireland. All opinions are my own.
