. John Desmond, Island Cottage, Hare Island.

Roast Duck Legs on a Bed of Turnip with Duck Juice. Cape Clear Turbot with Shrimp Sauce on a bed of Sea Beet or Spinach. Terrine of Vanilla Ice Cream with Meringue and Blackberry Sauce.

A VISIT to the Island Cottage isn't just a meal, it's a pilgrimage. Diners take the 7.55 pm ferry to Hare Island in west Cork not knowing what to expect because there's no menu - just a set price of £17 for starter, main course, cheese, dessert and coffee. "If you don't love food, don't bother," says John Desmond who with his partner, Ellmary Fenton, decided to open a restaurant in the middle of nowhere in 1990. Fortunately for him, so many Irish have fallen in love with food that Island Cottage is booked out for the entire coming summer.

Island Cottage represents all that the new Irish cooking stands for fresh, wholesome ingredients prepared simply but with flair. Shrimp and fish caught by local fisherman at 4 p.m. are being licked off diner's fingers at 8 p.m. Ducks from the island are accompanied by succulent sea spinach. Beef has never once been served at Island Cottage because Desmond hasn't found beef up to his standard and feels that perhaps the Irish don't know how beef should be hung.

Desmond (46) studied hotel management in Cork, learned to cook at the Ritz in Paris, then' spent 20 years as a chef in France, working at the three star Taillevent in Paris and teaching at the cooking school, La Varenne.

Terry McCoy, the Red Bank, Skerries, Co. Dublin.

Irish Farmhouse Cheese Parcel. Monkfish Tail Lambay Island. Two Armagh Apples with a Cooley Mountain Whiskey Sauce.

WHEN the hot, puffed filo pastry parcel bursts and the melted Lavinstown, Durrus and Cashel Blue cheeses dribble down over a layer of julienned carrot and parsnip drizzled with olive oil vinagrette - who will get the praise? Irish cheeses? Greek pastry? Italian olive oil? Or the unique cooking style of a self taught chef who thinks that his greatest strength is the fact that he is untrained?

Terry McCoy says that trained chefs go along "railroad tracks" doing approved things with approved foods, while he has the freedom to go "all over the place", such as combining smoked pork with monkfish in his main dish for the competition. At the same time, the principles of the La Toques circle of European chefs dedicated to natural, wholesome foods are like a region to him. McCoy gets up at dawn to collect nettles for soup, puts seaweed in his stocks, climbs elderberry trees in order to make elderflower champagne for his sauces and travels to a family milling business 45 minutes away for the stoneground flower to make his brown bread.

The Red Bank's lobsters are boiled to death kindly at the most humane temperature and the beef served there "dies happy".

. Neil McFadden, The Old Dublin, Francis Street, Dublin.

Ray Wing and Crab with Spiced Susanne Lettuce. Braised Errigal Lamb in Poitin and Buttermilk Bread. Rhubarb Ice Cream in a Chocolate Cup

"MODERN Irish cuisine is eclectic but not extreme," says 28 year old Neil McFadden, who likes to see traditional foods subtly enhanced, but not overpowered, by a range of international cooking styles. Examples would be a beautiful fillet of salmon in lemon and bulsamic oil accompanied by "champ", or bacon and cabbage in the form of Cavan Ham and Spicy Savoy Cabbage.

McFudden qualified at the College of Catering in Dublin before going on to train in some of the best French kitchens and to gather an impressive string of honours on his CV. He was a finalist in the prestigious Bocuse D'Or and a Roux Diner Scholar in 1995. In 1994, he took third place in the Challenge European de La Gastronomie in Bordeaux.

But while his training was French, his philosophy comes straight from the high priestess of Irish cooking Myrtle Allen, who taught him the importance of fresh, natural, Irish ingredients and encouraged him to join Euro Toques chef, the European Community of Cooks who subscribe to a charter requiring them to use fresh, natural ingredients.

. Gerry Galvin, Drimcong House, Moycullen, Co Galway.

Smoked Eel and Mussel Hotpot. Spiced Pork Roast with Apple and Thyme Cream Sauce. Tipsy Pudding in Mulled Wine.

"THERE really is no tradition in Irish cooking - it's developing now," says Gerry Galvin. Also a member of Euro Toques, he gets as many of his ingredients as he can as close to home as possible - including his own garden at Drimcong.

Galvin traces the current Irish passion for food back to the rediscovery of cheese making in the 1970s and to the setting up of old houses as hotels.

For the cook off, Galvin chose a typically "homey" menu, including smoked eel. "Germans love eel and if we are interested in promoting and establishing an identifiable Irish cuisine, eel is one thing we should develop since its all over our lakes and rivers," he says.

. Noel Kenny Crookedwood House, Mullingar, Co Westmeath.

Traditional Potato Pancake with Apple and Ginger Marmalade. Knaves of Beef stuffed with Wild Mushrooms. Children of Lir.

"THE style of today is a modern version of granny cooking," says Noel Kenny (43), who started Crookedwood House 11 years ago with his wife, Julie. "The good flavours are there and the stockpot is back on the stove."

At Crookedwood, sauces are based on stocks, rather than butter and cream, and the dishes which Kenny invents from his imagination have genuine flavours - but that doesn't mean old fashioned or boring. One of the great favourites there is a warm salad with Clonakilty black pudding, Parmesan cheese and shaved potatoes which are fried at the last minute. Kenny says that if he had tried serving the dish a decade ago, his customers would have thought he was mad.

He trained at Rockwell College in Tipperary and in Frankfurt, Germany, but regards himself as largely self taught and like some of the other chefs in the competition sees this as his greatest strength.

. Warren Massey, Roly's Bistro, Ballsbridge, Dublin. Black Pudding Croquette with Gooseberry Compote. Roast Breast of Chicken with Cabbage and Bacon. Rhubarb Tart with Whiskey Cream.

TWENTY FIVE year old Warren Massey trained with Colin O'Duly at Roly's Bistro, Ballsbridge, and is currently planning his own restaurant which will be in Terenure and which he intends to call "Popjoys", his aim is to create "simple, elegant and rustic dishes that let the produce speak for itself, are packed with flavour and require very little processing." Ten - or even five - years ago the idea of preparing roast chicken with cabbage and bacon for a cooking competition among the country's finest chefs would have seemed absurd. Today it seems just right.