The Menu: casting an eye upon the culinary crystal ball for 2024
Miki Archer Dede And Ahmet Barlok Customs The House, Maria Picture: Baltimore From
Once again, Mystic Menu takes out his edible crystal ball to make his predictions for the food world in 2024.
Last January, he predicted a Michelin star for Terre and a second for Dede at the Customs House — which duly came to pass — and he also expressed his sneaking suspicion that Andy Ferreira and Richard Evans’ then fresh-out-of-the-box Paladar cocktail bar and restaurant, in Cork city, would land with a bang — especially when awards season rolled around last August, at the Irish Bar Awards.
Paladar won silver for Best Cocktail Bar, was the winner of Best Newcomer, and topped that by taking the overall Bar of the Year 2023 award.
But last year, Mystic Menu also predicted a difficult year for Irish hospitality overall which, sadly, proved to be the case with myriad closures at every level — from small cafés to fine dining restaurants — and, speaking to many professionals in the industry in recent times, there is much fear about what’s in store for ’24.
Mystic Menu believes there will be further attrition — including the loss of several more Michelin stars to add to those surrendered in 2023 — as strapped businesses struggle to maintain the standards necessary in the face of a fiscal onslaught on multiple fronts, from high energy prices, exorbitant rents, soaring food and produce costs, and the difficulty in paying staff wages — if you can even get staff in the first place.
One near-racing certainty to lose its star is Ichigo Ichie, when it reopens with an entirely different model as a casual dining venue — renamed as Ichigo Ichie Bistro & Natural Wine.
But Michelin’s loss is very much Leeside’s gain, as the greatly reduced price point will make it much more accessible to a local audience, and the introduction of daily handmade soba noodles will bridge the gap between the new restaurant and chef/proprietor Takashi Miyazaki’s already hugely popular Miyazaki Japanese street food-style takeaway.
More broadly, at an international level, Michelin must be somewhat concerned for Ichigo Ichie.
It is far from the only restaurant in Europe to walk away from the multiple demands of operating as a starred restaurant, and The Menu suspects there will be changes ahead in the manner in which the esteemed guide operates and grades restaurants.
Mystic Menu has very high hopes indeed for the long-delayed opening of Birdsong in the city, believing it will become a national hospitality good news story in ’24.
A restaurant with a difference, from chefs Brian Murray (of Glass Curtain renown) and Darren Kennedy (formerly, Brunswick House, London) in a wonderfully elevated location above the city centre on the Cork Rooftop Farm, it’s a blend of indoor and outdoor dining.
It serves farm-to-table fare — much of it obviously from CRF — offerings from the grill, cocktails, natural wines, and craft beers.
The crack team also includes sommelier/restaurant manager Wesley Triggs, (late of London’s mighty Brawn) so the dining experience should be worthy of such a splendid and unique venue.
In terms of food trends, Mystic Menu believes premium “luxury” food products — such as 2023’s wearyingly ubiquitous caviar, along with foie gras, and gold leaf etc — will gradually fall away from the Irish chef’s armoury of ingredients, if for no other reason than the requirement to trim all fat from the culinary budget.
Mystic Menu, however, does give a pass to locally produced Goatsbridge trout roe — not quite the taste explosion of caviar, but it is a more sustainable local alternative.
One Irish ingredient Mystic Menu expects to see raise its profile in the coming year is native Irish sea salt, including flavoured salts, with two new salt producers alone having sprung up on the Dingle peninsula in recent times — West of Dingle and Dingle Sea Salt — entering a space in the market already including Atlantic Sea Salt, from West Cork, and Achill Island Sea Salt.
In addition, The Menu’s Newcomer of the Year 2023 — Terra Ignis — as well as producing fine fermented flavour additions, also do wonderful work with flavoured salts. It’s all a whole lot cheaper than caviar!
The rise of casual outlets serving small plates with natural wines should continue apace, with many of The Menu’s own favourites of last year cleaving to this becoming formula.
But to continue to describe plant-based eating as a ‘trend’ is no longer possible as it has, by now, begun to evolve into a profound and permanent shift in our eating habits — especially for “part-time” vegan flexitarians.
Accordingly, this is having an impact on our quest for alternative proteins — with The Menu eating an awful lot of very excellent Cork-made Otofu tofu.
A lifelong fan of pulses, The Menu is ever eager to see more of them grown for human consumption in Ireland — to follow on from the sterling work of North Cork farmer Tom Fouhy.
Ideally, we might see further experimentation taking place in the Cork Food Hub — a brilliant plan conceived in the Cork Food Policy Council, in 2022.
It is now set to launch later in the year, which will see 60 acres of Glenbrook Farm, north of Cork city, developed into a multi-purpose, multi-disciplinary organic growing space.
This will benefit the local food system, ensure equitable access to good food for all in the city, and provide learning and growing space for aspiring young organic farmers. (See corkfoodhub.ie)