The Stepping Stone, Caherdaniel, Co Kerry
Perhaps there is something about the tiny village of Caherdaniel, on the Ring of Kerry between Waterville and Sneem, which attracts restaurateurs who understand the subtle and the sublime.
The village was home for some years to Armel Whyte and Helen Mullane, who cooked brilliantly during the season in a little restaurant they called The Loaves and Fishes, before they decamped up to Listowel and opened the brilliant Allo's Bar and Bistro. Their old building is home now to The Stepping Stone. Helena O'Connor, at front of house, and in the kitchen Stephen McIlroy and Sally Walker. They opened The Stepping Stone in late May last year, and their operation quickly began to attract notice. A metaphor for why they are fated to succeed is found in their tables. They are simple, square two-seaters which can be shoved together to double up for four, and they are decorated with Joss paper, a ceremonial paper in subtle, colourful shades which Asians burn as a mark of mourning. Ask O'Connor how they have preserved the paper in the table and she replies, "Yacht varnish. Coats and coats of yacht varnish". Coat after coat to get the effect just right: subtle, understated. And you think: meticulous.
Meticulous is just what the three are, and our Friday night dinner showed such finesse and care that it simply bowled us over, with some of the most exciting tastes we have enjoyed in recent times.
My main course, which was chalked on the blackboard which details the day's fish and vegetarian dishes, was "Pink peppercorncrusted monkfish with hot buttered breadcrumbed oysters with garlic and lemon, red wine jus, green beans, dulse and garlic mash". There are scores of opportunities to get things wrong with this dish, and the complex finishes the kitchen added made the potential pitfalls even greater. The monkfish, for example, is a brochette of sliced and skewered coins of fish, which offers plenty of chances to overcook it. A red wine jus with fish needs to be light and sweet and not at all tannic to work properly. Oysters need to be finished in the grill at the last second, the mash affords the chance to be too salty thanks to the dulse (dilisk) seaweed used in it, and the green beans could come out seeming unnecessary.
But every detail was perfect. The fish was cooked just right. The oysters were a taste explosion of ethereal seasaltiness, sharpened by the bite of garlic and lemon and fine breadcrumbs. The red wine jus was sweet and perfectly reduced, the green beans crisp and the garlic and dulse mash made me - a devotee of the tuber - want to rise to my feet and applaud the chefs long and loud. This dish was highwire cooking, and they danced right through it.
We asked to have a soupcon of Bloody Mary soup in addition to another starter, and it came in tiny coffee cups, with a thin toast with a quenelle of fromage frais slathered on top. A splash of vodka enlivened a thrilling soup which had the further intoxication of a shot of Worcestershire sauce. This playful inventiveness is rampant throughout a menu from which we wanted to eat everything. Thai-style fillet of Irish beef with kimchi and sweet dipping sauce played on the lovely contrast between fine sweet beef, cooked perfectly rare, and the hot pickle from Korea which is kimchi, a mix of salted Chinese leaves with garlic, ginger, spring onions and red chilli with sugar. What impressed me about this was the control shown in capturing all the flavours and playing them one off against another.
Bantry Bay prawns wrapped in wonton skins with wasabi mayonnaise with rocket salad and a chilli relish once again nodded to Asia - wasabi is a fierce Japanese green mustard whose name translates as "tears" - but this time we had full-on flavour, with the prawns deep-fried in the wonton skins and then dipped in the little dish of mayo and wasabi, and the tearing freshness of the rocket was packed with peppery notes that made for thrilling flavours. But, once again, despite the strength and number of the flavours, nothing had been allowed to get out of control, and the dish was a triumph of detail and effort, with gorgeous flavours. It was inspiring to see such hard work so successfully realised in such mature cooking.
Our other main course was guinea fowl stuffed with wild mushroom and truffle oil, celeriac puree and cafe creme sauce, and when you sliced into the meat and reached the stuffing, the narcotic waft of truffle oil pounced on your senses.
I am at a loss as to how they could achieve such weightlessness in the celeriac puree, while the sauce picked up and congratulated everything else on the plate. Sublime cooking.
Sally Walker's desserts might almost be described as demonstration pieces. With the peanut-brittle ice cream that accompanies a maple nut tart, for example, there will be a tiny piece of the brittle set alongside, and the play of nutty flavours from both the ice cream and the light, perfectly composed tart was joyful. An iced creme brulee with rhubarb and ginger compote was a dessert which put us in mind of the the work of the Roux brothers (for whom the trio worked for a while), with its artful concoction and the lovely play of the fresh flavours of the compote set against the rich, intense brulee.
ALL this in a lovely little candlelit room which is decorated with skill and understatement: only the music could perhaps be a little better. Value for money is exceptional: starters cost between £4 for the Bloody Mary soup up to £6.50 for home-smoked duck breast with geranium jelly, while main courses run between £10.50 for the vegetarian dish (on Friday evening a risotto of leek and Parmesan with blackened aubergine) to around £15 for the fish dishes, fillet of beef or soy caramel duck breast. Puddings are just under a fiver, the wine list is short and well chosen, and the Stepping Stone is nothing less than a path to utter pleasure.
The Stepping Stone, Caherdaniel, Co Kerry, 066- 75444, fax 066-75449, thesteppingstone@tinet.ie Open 7 p.m.9.30 p.m. Friday-Sunday until June 1st, then Wednesday- Monday in June, seven days in July and August and Wednesday- Monday again in September. Major cards. Wine Licence. Children welcome.