THE 99 HAS had a gourmet make-over. While it remains an icon of the Irish summer, in culinary circles, it's gracing the menus of Michelin-star restaurants writes ALANNA GALLAGHER
American chef Bruce Hill gets a thrill from the thought of a swirl of soft-serve ice cream. So much so that he has decided to serve it at Picco, his Larkspur bay-area restaurant in California, but this is a grown-up take on a childhood treat - the ice cream is served with a shell of single estate chocolate from El Rey of Venezuela.
This side of the pond, soft-serve ice cream conjures up images of the 99, which has achieved iconic status. It evokes memories of simple pleasures and rain-free, seaside summers.
But here too it's getting the gourmet treatment. At Michelin-starred Dublin restaurant Thornton's, chef patron Kevin Thornton started experimenting with cones years ago, when his kids were still small. It was a way to get them to eat new foods, he explains. This idea has evolved into a "savoury 99" that he has been serving at the restaurant's canopy bar for some time. "The cone is made from flour, salt and egg white and filled with a compote of tomato, shallots and balsamic vinegar and topped with whipped goat's cheese. Instead of a Flake, the cone is garnished with a cheese tuile."
But would you call the 99 in its original format a gourmet experience? It is probably the most unhealthy thing you can put in your mouth says Richard Corrigan, who recently opened Bentley's Oyster Bar and Grill on Dublin's St Stephen's Green. The reason is the addition of palm oil, he explains.
Palm oil is used - but not in Ireland, where legislation prevents its usage, counters Tom McKiernan, business development manager at Lakeland Dairies, which has 50 per cent of the soft-serve business in this country. Cream, sugar and stabiliser are the only ingredients used here, he adds.
For Corrigan, the soft-serve 99-style ice cream has a place on the dessert trolley but only if it's amended to feature good-quality ingredients. "A fresh . . . home-made ice cream, still soft and served in a cone with chocolate sauce instead of a Flake would be the way I would like to do it," he says.
Billy Scurry, the DJ and chef/manager of Gruel on Dame Street in Dublin, is unimpressed. "Lots of chefs like to make ironic twists to classic dishes," he observes. "They take something that evokes their youth and recreate it for now." There's a lot of labour involved in creating tuile biscuits. "The economies of scale just wouldn't make it worth our while," he says.
Kelly's Resort Hotel in Rosslare lures guests back to their childhoods with its in-house Carpigiani machine. The hotel has been serving 99s for almost 25 years. "Whipped ice cream conjures up images of having a good time, holidays and summer time - whatever the weather," says general manager Bill Kelly. "And it's the perfect summer accompaniment to Wexford strawberries."
Dylan McGrath of newly-Michelined Mint in Dublin 6, thinks the gourmet take on the 99 is old hat. "It's been done before - Gordon Ramsay was doing it in the 1990s," he huffs.
"There was a time when the 99 was the height of luxury but the kids of today demand so much more," says Gene Curry, who runs a shop and bar equipment business and sells 99 and milk-shake machines that cost from €10,000 to €40,000.
Yasmin Macintosh runs Teddy's on Windsor Terrace in Dún Laoghaire, famed for its traditional-style 99s since it first opened in July 1950. The 99 is now €2 but the effort that goes into making it remains the same.
"People think that scoop ice cream is better quality but it depends on what ingredients are used and how they're blended together," she says. Macintosh won't say what goes into a Teddy's 99 but she will say that the recipe is blended specially in their dairy.
The origins of the 99 are hazy. In Britain, Askeys is reputed to have first established a cone called "99". People ordering this would ask for a "99 with a Flake" which was shortened over the years to "99".
In more recent times the ice cream was name-checked by 1990s art and music collective, The KLF. The pop-electronica duo included the phrase "Make mine a 99" in their 1991 single version of Justified and Ancient.
WHATEVER ITS HISTORY, the secret to good soft-serve ice cream is the fat content and how it's whipped, explains Gene Curry.
The air content is vital for volume and that melt-in-the-mouth factor. "Your average 99 cone is made up of 40 per cent air, 55 per cent liquid and five per cent fat," Curry says.
Its air content might explain the 99's attraction to politicians. Being photographed eating ice cream says "I'm down to earth and a man of the people".
Writer Julian Gough argues that the dairy treat should have been used as a sweetener to ensure a Yes vote from the nation on the subject of the Lisbon Treaty.
In his essay, "The Real Reason Ireland Said No to the Lisbon Treaty" on juliangough.com, the one-time front man of Galway-outfit Toasted Heretic makes this suggestion. "My feeling is that they should have put in a paragraph [in the Treaty] promising us all an ice cream if we voted yes," he writes. "At least that would have been something concrete that we could have visualised. It would have stood out a mile, for its clarity and lack of ambiguity, in the Irish Referendum Commission's summary of the Treaty. And given that the weather was fairly good on the day of the vote, it might well have swung the referendum."
Like good children doing what they were told, we, the Irish people, would have been rewarded with a creamy cone for everyone in the audience.
The piece is illustrated with pictures of the former taoiseach Bertie Ahern and Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny both licking melting 99s. Gough's thoughts have sparked much debate. Blogger David Wilkins replied with the following: "May I suggest that the ice cream given to each Irish voter should take the form of a 99? That would remind the Irish that they are voting not just for themselves but also for the 99 per cent of EU citizens who have been denied a vote on the Lisbon Treaty. The whole process is, after all, distinctly flakey."
WANNABE POLITICIANS AND 99 fans alike can now also try making the treat at home. Bespoke bridal gown designer Leigh Tucker makes them at home with a Cuisinart soft ice cream and sorbet maker that was a present.
"I make fresh ice cream using eggs, sugar, milk, cream and vanilla pods and don't freeze it so it stays soft." The machine has built-in condiment dispensers for sprinkles, crushed up Smarties or ginger nuts and the results have been served at dinner parties and when her nephews come round.
And if you make them well enough, no one will notice the distinct lack of sunshine.
Lickin' good a cone for all seasons
Ice cream sales are taking a dip as the August deluge continues. "People aren't interested in eating as much ice cream in the bad weather," says Colette Reid, marketing manager for Unilever in Ireland, whose ice cream brands include HB, Magnum, Cornetto and Ben Jerry's. "Definitely our water ices are suffering, but our chocolate-based ice creams are holding up much better." This may be because ice cream is becoming less about cooling people down and more about cheering them up. "At the end of the day, it's really more about the pleasure of food and the pleasure side of ice cream," Reid says. "Ice cream is scientifically proven to make you happy."
Kieran Murphy, of Kerry-based Murphy's Ice Cream, says the rain has had some effect on the number of clients stopping at the company's Dingle and Killarney shops for cones. "Heavy rain and especially forecasts of bad rain do keep people from Co Kerry," he says, adding that the comfort factor associated with ice cream can outweigh its cooling properties. "You might not have the summer, but you may at least get the summer feeling with ice cream." Fiona McCann