In the Ballymore Inn, in Ballymore Eustace, Co Kildare, Barry and Georgina O'Sullivan do a very simple thing: they cook and serve the food that people love to eat. Spicy chicken wings with Cashel Blue and garlic dip. Goat's cheese croutes with walnut-oil dressing. Grilled chicken with potato cake and tarragon sauce. Fillet steak with Madeira and champ. Pasta with chicken, tomato and goat's cheese. Stir-fry beef with oyster sauce. Pizza with grilled peppers, olives and pesto. Pizza with grilled fennel, peppers, basil oil and Ardrahan farmhouse cheese. Pizza with sauteed onions, anchovy, bacon, black olives and Parmesan. Chocolate fudge cake. Apricot and almond tart. Homemade ice creams.
Many of these dishes could almost be described as "repertoire" dishes, they are such standardbearers of the modern, eclectic, Irish cooking. The influences are fairly obvious: The Elephant & Castle in Dublin's Temple Bar; Bernadette O'Shea's cooking in Truffles Restaurant in Sligo, and her book Pizza Defined, Joanna Hill's cooking at Avoca Handweavers, in Co Wicklow, Armel Whyte's cooking in Allo's Bar & Bistro in Listowel, Sarah Webb's baking at The Gallic Kitchen, in Dublin.
But what the O'Sullivans have done, then, with the repertoire, is to give it their own reading, their own interpretation. They have styled the food to suit this quite lovely bar and cafe in this quite lovely village, a couple of miles south of Blessington and just around the corner from Russborough House. And, above all, they have sourced utterly impeccable ingredients, the key element in making their reading of the repertoire dishes successful.
To illustrate this, let's take a look at the Special of the Day, chalked on the blackboard on a hot, busy Thursday evening: Rack of Pork with a Dijon mustard sauce.
"It is served with Kildare champ, or fries, whichever you prefer," said the waitress. The pork was artfully chargrilled, and there was just the meat and the sauce with a few leaves of spinach on the plate, the champ served separately. To the knife, the meat was beautifully tender, and the flavour was awesome: sweet, pure, perfectly balanced, bewitching. My companion quickly had a few bites, and we agreed that neither of us had ever eaten such a fine piece of pork, anywhere. The sauce was spot-on and utterly suitable, the spinach fresh and just right, and the Kildare champ was terrific - light and buttery, with the scallions crisp and enlivening. Within the repertoire, this was a virtuoso performance.
But behind the performance, there lies a philosophy. Wearing her other hat, Georgina O'Sullivan is home market manager of An Bord Bia, in which role she tirelessly encourages producers and consumers to reflect upon and consider the quality of raw ingredients, most especially meat.
WITH this dish, she artfully demonstrated that philosophy, for the stunning quality of the pork was the key to the success of the dish, and the care taken with all the other ingredients created something utterly unarguable.
This keynote quality underpinned everything we ordered. My spicy chicken wings were fab, just the sort of zippy, zappy, in-your-face flavour you want to enjoy after the drive down from Dublin on a hot summer evening as you knock back some white Rioja. Spicy chicken wings have been the core dish of modern Irish informal cooking, ever since the E & C began to cook them. Devotees will love the Ballymore Inn version - with the dipping sauce a little richer than the E&C's.
And devotees of modern Irish pizza will love the results of the Ballymore Inn pizza oven. There are eight varieties of pizza offered, and here the style comes from Bernadette O'Shea's concept: a thin, firm crust, a powerful assemblage of flavour, and Irish artisan ingredients used cleverly as ingredients. My companion ordered No 7 - grilled fennel, roasted peppers, basil and Ardrahan cheese, with the north Cork cheese substituted on the night by the splendid Tipperary cheese, Cooleeney, due to a shortage of the former.
If she was initially doubtful of the idea of using Cooleeney on a pizza, it took simply one bite of this plosive, perfectly composed pizza to blow away any misgivings my guest might have had. It was smashing, the base toothsome and precise and, vitally, it had achieved that commingling of flavours which makes pizza a success.
She followed this with the concisely named chicken pesto, but not before voicing a concern as to whether the pesto would be homemade. Not only was it home-made, but the chicken it was spooned upon was a fine, firm bird, the leaves underneath were spanking fresh with vigour, and the doorstep of bread on which this mega-sandwich rested was home-made also. It was, in short, brilliant, the very idea of a chicken sandwich re-examined and re-invigorated.
There was still time for the kitchen to make a mistake with a dull dessert and dithery coffee, but a choice apple tart with a lattice of pastry was charming, and the espresso was excellent. Not a foot wrong, anywhere.
Once in a blue moon, someone makes a progression in Irish food which seems to me to be important. I think what Barry and Georgina O'Sullivan are doing in the Ballymore Inn is important. Remember that this thrilling, clever food is being served in a little bar and cafe in a little village in a county with precious little reputation for good food.
Its importance lies in the kitchen's concentration on ingredients of superlative quality, and its ability, then, to use these to create dishes that ring the changes on the most popular and influential modern creations.
And, equally importantly, they do all of this in a lovely, relaxed room with excellent staff taking care of you all the way. On a Thursday night the place was packed with families and friends having a great night out, enjoying the food they love to eat.
The Ballymore Inn, Ballymore Eustace, Co Kildare, tel: 045- 864585. Orders taken Mon 12.30 p.m.3 p.m., Tues and Wed 12.30 p.m.3 p.m., 6 p.m.9 p.m., Thurs 12.30 p.m.9 p.m. Fri and Sat 12.30 p.m.10 p.m. Kitchen closed Sun. Major cards, booking advisable for evening meals