Well-known Cork baker is hanging up his apron aged 81

As Declan Ryan dusts off the flour from his hands to greet me, I ask him about his future plans, now the baker famous for his Arbutus Bread is retiring at 81.

“My wife hopes my new domain will be in the garden!” he laughs.

Last month, he and wife Patsy announced the sale of Arbutus Breads, one of Ireland’s most iconic speciality food brands, so they can retire.

Their 18 staff can rest easy, as new Dublin-based owners, The Bretzel Trading Company, intend to continue the operation of one of Cork’s most renowned food businesses.

As well as gardening, Declan says: “I hope to indulge in my passion for art, collecting art and artefacts from all over the world.”

Why is the holder of the first Michelin star in Ireland hanging up his apron?

“I turned 81 this July and the knees are gone,” says Declan.

“I did have a knee surgery some years ago. I have two false knees. But there are a few more things broken!”

There’s nothing wrong with his hands, which helped turn out 2,000 loaves of sourdough and yeast each night.

“That is true,” says Declan.

And these hands hauled a lot of goods around to country markets over the years, Douglas and Midleton, where people queued up for Arbutus Bread.

The sale to the Dublin company made sense.

“I looked at Bretzel Bakery before we opened the current bakery, and they sent bakers down here, so there’s been mutual admiration there,” says Declan.

Born in Cork in 1943, and raised near Carrigaline, he was used to the hospitality/catering business from a young age.

“My mother and father took on the running of a guest house in Crosshaven,” says Declan.

“My mother served evening meals there too. A friend of my father’s, who worked in the tourist office, seeing the good job that my parents were doing, advised them to move nearer the city. And they did.”

That was Arbutus Lodge. In its heyday, the hotel attracted celebrity guests from home and abroad, including several Irish Presidents, U2, Liam Neeson, and Andrew Lloyd Webber.

Like his parents, Declan was destined to go on to do great things.

At the beginning of my career, I studied hotel management and cheffing in London and France that included stints with famous chefs Paul Bocuse and Jean Troisgros.

As a teenager, Declan had met the love of his life, Patsy Fay, at Irish college, Coláiste na Rinne, in Ring, Co. Waterford.

“We were both instantly smitten with one another,” he says. “After we spent another summer in Ring, we became inseparable. I used to cycle Patsy into Dungarvan and Ardmore on the crossbar of my bike.”

Declan and Dubliner Patsy were separated from each other for five years before being reunited and married.

 “I met Patsy again by chance in Dublin at a dance in Harcourt Street after a lapse of five years,” Declan explains.

He kept hold of her this time.

We had great fun, camping our way through France in my old Renault. We were both up for adventure.

Declan had already engaged in other culinary adventures, studying Hotel Management at Hendon Technical College, London.

“I got a call from my father in the summer of 1964,” he recalls. “He said they were up the walls and would I return home to help out.”

Declan duly did, and went on to work at the Russell Hotel in Dublin before he and Patsy took over the Arbutus in 1970.

“In 1974, we were awarded Ireland’s first Michelin Star,” says Declan. “And at that time, I was lucky enough to be accepted for a stint at Les Freres Troisgros in Loire, France, a three- star Michelin establishment.

“My time spent there was the most enlightening and liberating food experiences of my life,” says Declan, whose culinary crusades also included the Avis in Lisbon.

Who minded the shop?

“Patsy managed the Arbutus and the children,” says Declan.

In the mid-seventies, he and Patsy were joined by Declan’s younger brother Michael and his wife Catherine, who went on to open the popular Isaacs restaurant in Cork.

“We were rushed off our feet,” says Declan. In 1999, we sold our pride and joy because we were out on our feet.

Declan, fleet of foot, got on his feet again soon after, opening another business.

“I wasn’t ready to retire and vegetate,” he says. 

I started up Arbutus Bread in a double garage at Rathdene, our home, across the road from our former hotel.

The restaurant at Arbutus was well known for the delicious West Cork brown soda bread. “It was my granny’s recipe,” says Declan.

Having widespread experience in the hospitality and catering trade, he started up a new business and sought advice from the best.

“At Darina Allen’s suggestion, I joined the Bread Bakers Guild of America, I joined them in Aurillac, France, where I learned the French traditional methods of baking.”

Declan was a fast learner.

“A lot of small bakeries here had closed down. I set out to bring sourdough bread to Cork.

“My good friend, Alfie Lyons, who had a restaurant in Ballydehob, the Basil Bush, with sourdough bread on every table, let me indulge in the unique flavour.

“Our organic supplier, Joe, gave me a box of overripe grapes one day so I mashed them up with flour and water to make a ferment for the sourdough. We still use the same ferment today.”

Since Declan started baking bread in the double garage, his mission to bring healthy Arbutus bread to Cork is now famous.

As he shows me around Unit 2B in Mayfield, the golden breads, sourdough and yeast, some laden with walnuts, tomato, herbs and red wine, make for a beautiful fragrant combination that wafts up and down the stairs of the industrial unit.

“Our West Cork soda bread made with Macroom oatmeal is still the most popular of the Arbutus breads,” says Declan.

He still gets a thrill producing his all-natural products.

Arbutus Bread is an all-natural bakery. We are committed to producing natural artisan bread with no chemicals.

Declan’s love for his craft has taken him many places.

“I have worked in many bakeries in France, and to this day I am still in touch with some of the top bakers. I have partaken in bread festivals in France.

“I also brought bread to Turin to the Slow Food event. I have taken part in an EU-led bakery conference in Braganza, Portugal.”

Declan is one of Ireland’s great food ambassadors.

I was awarded Food Ambassador of the decade for Good Food Ireland from 2006 to 2016.

Now in his ninth decade, having achieved so much, he is ready to cut the apron strings and dust off the flour for the last time.

Is it true one of his passions was surfing in his younger days?

“Yes,” says Declan. “I loved surfing. The knees were good then!”

Apart from Arbutus Bread - the business Declan was so passionate about that he sold his home to fund a full working bakery - he has another passion. “Chocolate!” he says. “I love it and I buy it in bulk.”

He gifts me a large stick of sourdough bread with figs to bring home.

“Enjoy that now, girl,” he says. No doubt I will - courtesy of the most famous baker in Cork.