THE ULTIMATE DO MESTIC GODDESS
Mother-of-six Myrtle Allen not only transformed our culinary landscape — her hard work, skill, and passion for good, honest cooking has left behind a legacy that no other chef can touch
MYRTLE HILL was just a teenage schoolgirl when she first visited Ballymaloe House in the early 1940s. Back then the fine Georgian farmhouse in Shanagarry, close to the coast in East Cork, was owned by the family of her best school-friend, and she was invited to a fundraising shindig for the local lifeboat service.
That evening she was introduced to fellow guest, Ivan Allen, an energetic and progressive, not to mention handsome, young farmer, originally from Co Louth but who was now working on a neighbouring estate.
It was, by all accounts, to prove to be an extremely fortuitous introduction. By 1943 the couple had married, when Mrs Allen (as she would always be known) was just 19 years-old. Four years later, by which time two of their six children had been born, they bought and moved into Ballymaloe House, the place where they had first met.
It would take some time and a ferocious amount of hard work, but the estate evolved and grew into one of Ireland’s foremost dining destinations. In 1975 Mrs Allen was the first Irish woman to be awarded the coveted Michelin star, and had established a prestigious cooking school. With the help of her children, their spouses, and her grandchildren, the name Ballymaloe became synonymous with quality produce and service, with some of her family branching out into branded sauces, relishes and soups, as well as running the luxurious Ballymaloe House Hotel and the famed cafe.
It has become something of an mini-empire, tucked away in the depths of lush farmland on the less fashionable side of Co Cork. And at it’s helm, as anyone involved in the family business will tell you, has always been Myrtle Allen.
Blessed with a tremendous amount of self-possession and confidence, with an acclaimed no-nonsense attitude and industrious right into her twilight years, she was hailed as a doyenne of Irish food, who rarely followed trends, even when it might have been more profitable to do so.
Her lifelong mantra, which has been adopted by many modern chefs, was to use as much local produce as possible, when it’s in season. And she was a champion of her neighbouring farmers and fishermen, earning their respect and their gratitude.
If her father had has his way, however, she would have never have stepped foot into a kitchen.
Born in Tivoli on the northside of Cork city, she was raised in Monkstown, a harbour village about ten miles south of the city. Her father, grandfather and great-grandfather were all successful architects, their acclaimed practice for many years was known as WH Hill & Son. And at one stage, with her father’s encouragement, she thought she might follow them into the family business.
Mrs Allen attributed her early appreciation for nutritious, wholesome food to her mother.
‘My mother was quite poorly when we were children and she believed, quite rightly, that good food is essential for health,’ she explained in an interview to this paper a few ago. ‘We had a big garden, and a great deal of what we ate was grown there. I grew up knowing that lots of fresh produce is what you need.’
She was not, however, allowed to learn how to prepare the meals herself and her older sister, Moira, ate.
‘I wasn’t born a good cook and in fact, I didn’t even spend much time in the kitchen as a young girl as I wasn’t allowed to,’ she explained. ‘I have one vivid memory of the cook chasing me out with a red hot poker as I was getting in her way. But I always loved food and came from a family where fresh, homegrown produce was very important.
‘We had two or three acres at our house and my father grew lots of vegetables and insisted that no dinner would be complete without them. So I suppose you could say that I developed a taste for simple, good quality ingredients from a very young age.’
At the age of 12 she was sent to Frencham Heights in England, a boarding school for girls and boys.
‘But when the war broke out, I decided that I was coming home to Ireland as I believed life would be a lot safer here,’ she said. She boarded instead at Newtown, a Quaker school in Waterford City.
‘After I finished secondary school my parents enrolled me into the School of Commerce in Cork to do a cooking course,’ she said.
‘I nearly didn’t go as my friends and I had been having a lovely time on a holiday in Kerry and I didn’t want to leave to go to college. But my mother told me in no uncertain terms that because I had agreed to it, I could “jolly well get on with it.”
‘For the first lesson our teacher told us she would show us how to cook boiled mutton, which didn’t sound very appetising, but the course was quite enjoyable and I did two seasons.’
Her marriage to Ivan also
She was the first Irish lady to get a Michelin star ‘For my first lesson I cooked boiled mutton’
She transformed produce into amazing meals
prompted her to continue to learn how to cook.
‘Ivan was a great gourmet. I don’t know where it came from but he always knew good food and he knew, instinctively, when something was right or wrong,’ she explained. ‘But he didn’t cook. He tried to scramble me an egg when we got home from honeymoon and I knew then that I would have to learn.’
In their first years together they lived in a small house in Shanagarry before moving into Ballymaloe where they spent the next 16 years farming and bringing up their six children, Wendy, Natasha, Timothy, Rory, Yasmin and Fern.
The farm was a success producing milk, butter, cream, eggs, home raised pork and veal as well as fruit and vegetables. Mrs Allen became an expert in how to transform their produce into amazing meals.
For a time she wrote a cookery column in the Irish Farmers Journal as well as several popular cook books.
By 1964, when the youngest of their children was about to go to boarding school, she felt it was time for something else.
‘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.’
Famously she placed an advert in a local paper inviting guests to come and ‘dine at a country house.’
Within two years the Egon Ronay Guide described The Yeats Room — as the restaurant was called — as ‘an outstanding example of what a good restaurant should aim to be.’
The dynamic and tireless motherof-six went on to open a hotel and a cookery school. At one point, in the early 80s, she commuted to Paris to run a restaurant there, La Ferme Irlandaise.
She was also a founder member of Euro-Toques International and served as its president for three years.
Ivan died in 1998, but Mrs Allen continued working right into her 80s and she remained a familiar presence in Ballymaloe right up until the last couple of years, often appearing in the kitchens early in the morning to check that her recipes were being followed faithfully.
Her legacy, as her daughter-inlaw Darina Allen said yesterday, is extraordinary. As was her work ethic and sense of fairness. Shortly after her marriage to Ivan, she switched from the Church of Ireland to become a Quaker, like his family.
And when once asked why she thought Quakers were so successful in business, she replied: ‘Because they’re honest... They work terribly carefully to do things right. If you buy something in a Quaker shop, you’d be sure you’d be given the right price.’
Darina Allen recalled yesterday how Mrs Allen once approached a local farmer whose chicken she hoped to buy.
‘She asked him: “How much do you need to be paid to produce something of that quality for me?” She had an appreciation of the work that went into producing good food...
‘I feel so fortunate, and all of us do, feel so proud to have worked with her. Certainly meeting her changed the course of my life... She and Ivan were an extraordinary couple. How fortunate we were to have them. We all loved her.’