More than 60 years of Ballymaloe: 'Nothing much has changed here over the years'

When Myrtle Allen married progressive farmer Ivan Allen in 1943 she went on to cook for her husband, six children and farmhands using what the farm produced; milk, eggs, fruit, vegetables, and home-raised meat.

Years later when the couple moved to Ballymaloe House and the surrounding 300 acres in Shanagarry, Myrtle, who passed away at age 94 in June 2018, had a decision to make.

“Most of the children were grown,” she previously said.

“On a winter’s day, I sat by the fire alone and wondered what I would do in this big house when they were all grown up. Then I thought about a restaurant.”

Sixty-one years on, Ballymaloe House has national and international renown.

It came to symbolise the farm-to-table movement.

Being a neighbour of the Allens, I had the pleasure of meeting Myrtle Allen, Darina Allen, and Rory Allen over the years.

“Ivan and I placed an advert in the Cork Examiner, ‘Dine in Historic Country House. Open Tuesday to Saturday. Booking essential.’”

Myrtle was practical, pro-active and forward-thinking.

“She had already been giving winter cookery classes to fill guest bedrooms during the quieter part of the season,” says Darina.

“I helped her out in the kitchen from time to time.”

Darina soaked up everything like a sponge, culminating in the creation of the world-renowned Ballymaloe Cookery School, which she runs with her brother Rory O’Connell and her daughter-in-law Rachel Allen.

Myrtle Allen created dishes based on the food around her.

Her mantra was ‘keep it local, keep it seasonal and keep it simple.’

“It is the ingredients, provisions that come into the kitchen, that rule what the menu is going to be,” she said.

“What’s in good condition to cook at that moment, nice and fresh.”

For many years, Myrtle wrote the daily menus in her elegant hand, with dishes like Carrageen moss pudding, watercress soup, hot Galway rock oysters, brown yeast bread, Irish stew, roast east Cork spring lamb and Ivan Allen’s dressed crab, named for her husband.

Her husband was instrumental in influencing Myrtle’s interest in cooking. She was 19 when they married.

“I had never cooked until then and I received my first lesson from my new husband when we returned from our honeymoon,” Myrtle once told me, sitting in the original dining salon, the Yeats rooms, where she served guests back in 1964.

What did Ivan teach her to cook?

“He taught me one of his bachelor favourites, scrambled eggs and mushrooms!”

The seed of Ballymaloe House was born.

The rest is history.

“We could have 60 people for dinner,” says Fern Allen, one of Myrtle’s daughters.

“People were sitting on the stairs waiting for their tables.”

Myrtle once recalled having anxiety about the restaurant in the early years.

“I used to have a nightmare that the cars were coming on and on and on, one after the other and I wasn’t prepared for them all!”

Business was brisk.

“And they never stopped coming,” Myrtle had said.

The patrons arriving from Cork city and its environs ate well.

“When we took in the first few guests, my husband said, ‘if they ask us to stand on our heads, we’ll stand on our heads to please them.’”

That didn’t happen as the guests were well satisfied and well sated by the ambience, the surroundings, the cosiness and mostly by the home cooking.

In addition to her daughter Fern, Myrtle Allen is survived by her sons, Tim and Rory, her daughters, Wendy Whelan, Natasha Harty and Yasmin Hyde, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Many family members are involved in the business.

Ivan Allen passed away in 1998.

Myrtle always stayed loyal to her mantra – ‘Keep it local, keep it simple, keep it seasonal’.

Culinary queen Darina Allen learned from the best.

“Myrtle Allen cooked like my mother cooked,” says Darina who, back in the 1960s saw Myrtle Allen as a visionary in the culinary world.

“I was advised to get a ‘proper career’ like science or medicine,” says Darina, laughing about how she came to earn her bread and butter.

“Back in the day, chefs had no status and were mostly men.”

Darina is no pushover.

“I kept insisting I wanted to learn to cook,” says Darina.

“I got my way when I attended Cathal Brugha College, learning not just how to cook but how to manage a kitchen.”

Darina, from Laois, managed to wing her way to Ballymaloe House where Myrtle Allen was cooking up a storm and where she met her husband, Tim.

“Myrtle was an extraordinary woman who used only local produce in her kitchen and who hand-wrote her menus every day,” says Darina.

“I remember Myrtle was using fresh herbs when nobody was using them.”

Darina fell in love with Tim Allen and his home place.

“I loved every moment of Ballymaloe since the moment I arrived,” says Darina.

“Myrtle was a great teacher, and she created a new menu with fresh ingredients every day going with the seasons. Myrtle was a total pioneer in what she did. I am so lucky that our paths crossed. Myrtle Allen was an inspirational mentor.”

The two women were on good terms.

“I always called her Mrs Allen,” says Darina.

Coming to terms with the award-winning dessert trolley is always a welcome prospect.

“We are proud of the wonderful reputation our famous dessert trolley has garnered over the years,” says Fern Allen.

“It began by offering chocolate cases and orange mousse.” 

Fern has a good memory.

“I remember cycling around mother’s legs when she was cooking!”

Children always abounded at Ballymaloe House.

“My son made pals with the younger guests, and they enjoyed playing together in the great outdoors,” says Fern.

No doubt the outdoor pool and tennis courts added to the fun?

“Indeed they did,” says Fern.

Some of the guests who stayed at Ballymaloe House are famous in their own right.

“Bono has visited us here,” says Fern.

“And Gabriel Byrne got married here.”

No doubt all the guests that have been welcomed to Ballymaloe House over more than 60 years appreciated the pale jersey milk still warm from the cows grazing in the fields, the vegetables just plucked from the ground, the fish fresh from the ocean in Ballycotton, the crusty bread fresh from the oven.

“Nothing much has changed here over the years,” says Fern.

“Mother’s legacy continues to live on.”

No doubt Ballymaloe House, courtesy of matriarch Myrtle Allen, will always be that ‘castle in the sky’ in the wonderland of the countryside.

This article originally appeared in the Holly Bough.