When the dessert trolley in the dining room of Ireland’s legendary Ballymaloe House rattles to the table it is one of the few times these days to take the stance that greed is good. A landscape of bowls, platters, boats and plinths, each is filled with the kind of gloriously nostalgic desserts that inspire a kind of childlike insatiability. On one Autumn day the contents of the cart is a sweet snapshot of the Irish countryside in that moment: apple tartlets with apples picked from the estate’s walled gardens; wobbly carrageen moss puddings, made with the seaweed foraged from the nearby nearby Ballycotton Bay; berries in sweet geranium; a pear and walnut meringue gateau. But it’s a pyramid of Jersey cream ice cream balls from the House’s herd, served in a bowl of solid ice that is the most astonishing. A dessert from another era and one that reminds that the very best desserts are both time-honoured and timeless.
Since it opened in 1964 Ballymaloe’s philosophy has been to exclusively use hyper-seasonal ingredients long before the term was coined. Come June, the trolley will look completely different but equally delicious with the desserts such as pistachio meringue roulade with Irish straweberries and a solstice sorbet made of gooseberries and elderflowers taking center stage.
The spirit of the late Myrtle Allen, the founder of Ballymaloe House and pioneer of the Irish Food Movement, lives on in the trolley. Introduced by Allen when she opened her grand, wisteria-covered family home and 300 acres of fertile farmland to paying guests, it began as a practical way of presenting desserts which relied on what was in season and what was being sold by the neighboring farms.
The trolley allowed diners try a little bit of everything: meringues filled with fruit, flavored creams and curd; warm Autumn pies; bowls of geranium-scented jellies; flaming festive puddings. And the manner in which they were served, tableside, with extra helpings, instilled in Ballymaloe a brand of personal and spoiling hospitality that set the standard for country house hotels, for which Ireland is renowned.
The head pastry chef, JR Ryall, is the standard bearer for Allen’s desserts. Working at her side for over 10 years (but beginning in the Ballymaloe kitchen as a schoolboy) the 32-year-old reveres her canon of work. His artisanal take on her tarts, cakes, trifles and jellies won him the best dessert trolley in the world in 2019 at the World Restaurant Awards. Sadly, Mrs Allen had passed away a few months before the ceremony, aged 94.
“I always wanted her feedback and opinions, I appreciated everything she had to say to me and her guidance helped me to develop in so many ways, not just in my cooking. When you have that connection with someone you become dedicated to them.”
It was Darina Allen, Myrtle’s daughter-in-law and head of the cookery school (with her brother Rory), who in a prescient gesture gave a four-year-old JR Ryall her cookbook while on a tour of the cookery school with his aunt. The dedication read: “To John Robert, who will become a great chef one day.” Little did she know to what extent their lives would one day be interwoven.
“It is important that we maintain the desserts that are traditional to the house” says Ryall. “As they are the source of flavor memories that transport our guests back to Ballymaloe–even when they’re sitting in rush hour traffic on Brooklyn Bridge.”
