`Our spring lamb will be in shortly, and salmon from the river, and Mary Robinson is hanging in the President's Restaurant," says William O'Callaghan, of Longueville House, near Mallow in north Cork.
Mrs Robinson's portrait is hanging in the restaurant, alongside all her illustrious predecessors - a fitting gallery to oversee the spectacular culinary efforts of O'Callaghan and his team. The new spring menus show O'Callaghan's fiery brilliance at work: pan-fried gateaux of risotto and scallop with salad, plus a coriander and garlic sauce; Ardrahan cheese pastry with an avocado salad and a hazelnut sauce; sirloin steak with a pink peppercorn sauce and fried enoki and shimji mushrooms; pan-fried duck magret with pickled red cabbage and a tangerine and caraway sauce; and white and dark chocolate mousse wrapped in chocolate with a pineapple sauce, are just some of the new dishes on the Longueville menu. Dinner costs £30, and maybe a spring break in Longueville is just what's needed right now.
Longueville House, Mallow, Co Cork. Tel: 022-47156