Ashford Castle’s Cullens at the Cottage restaurant – with its charming thatched cottage setting – has reopened with a new seasonal menu featuring produce from more than a dozen local Irish producers, together with produce grown, picked, pickled, foraged and produced on the Ashford Castle estate.
Cullen’s at the Cottage traditionally closes for the winter but planning starts up to 12 months in advance, with Ashford Castle’s head chefs collaborating with head gardener, Alex Lavarde, who oversees the estate’s kitchen gardens.
Executive Head Chef, Liam Finnegan and Head Chef, Amélie Le Guennec meet with Alex Lavarde almost daily to consider crop, planting and harvesting cycles – this year, the newly launched menu at Cullen’s at the Cottage features more fantastically fresh and estate grown goods than ever before.
Asparagus, rhubarb, wild garlic, lovage, fennel, mixed leaves are among the estate-grown produce currently starring on the menu at Cullen’s at the Cottage, which will change with the seasons
Sous Chef, Hilary Casey, who heads up the hotel’s Wild Food project complements dishes with her homemade pickles, condiments and preserves.
Connemara oysters are served with Hilary’s hot sauce, which is made from chillis harvested in late summer, fermented with red pepper and salt brine. Guests will also enjoy estate made butter, breads, buttermilk and honey when dining at Ireland’s first Forbes Five-star rated hotel.
Diners will be treated to produce from some of the west of Ireland’s finest artisan producers
This includes Burren House smoked salmon, Connemara crab and lobster, Killary Fjord mussels, Andarl farm pork, Martin Jennings steak, Kinvarra lamb, St Tola Goat’s Cheese and Velvet Cloud dairy produce, together with Goatsbridge Rainbow Trout and Ring’s Farm Chicken.
Sample dishes on the menu include Connemara crab with brown crab butter, brioche, land cress, pickled vegetables; Dukkah crusted Goatsbridge rainbow trout with clams, estate asparagus, sorrel butter sauce, trout caviar, with desserts including a Vanilla custard tart with blood orange sorbet.
Cullens at the Cottage is open not only to guests of Ashford Castle but to those staying at The Lodge at Ashford. Cullen’s at the Cottage also welcomes bookings from non-residents.
