Far East meets East Cork

Two-Michelin starred Terre at Castlemartyr Resort is now under the stewardship of a new head chef.

In his first six months in charge in East Cork, Leeds-born chef Lewis Barker has retained the two Michelin stars at Terre but has also introduced a new series of food collaborations. The ‘Friends of Terre’ series kicked off last week and the first guest chef was Michael Wilson of starred Marguerite in Singapore.

Chef Michael Lewis is a friend of Barker whose forte is an Australian-inspired fusion of Asian flavours and classic French technique.

Singapore is where Lewis Barker spent many years working and it’s a country which is a crossroads in South East Asia as Chef Barker points out. “Singapore has long stood as a crossroads of cultures, flavours and ideas - a place where culinary traditions from across Asia converge and evolve,” he wrote on the menu.

It took place over two dinner services on Wednesday 17 and Thursday 18 June, with a collaborative menu that was a 50/50 showcase of both Lewis Barker’s Terre and Michael Wilson’s Marguerite.

With two canapés from each kitchen on the menu, the chefs also cooked a starter, main course, a dessert and two petits fours each.

The menu was an exciting blend of Asian and Australian flavours and produce along with the best of local and Irish suppliers. There was luxurious caviar along with eel from Lough Neagh - an unfashionable product in Ireland that does not appear often on Irish menus. Indeed the Lough Neagh Smoked Eel dish was one of the highlights. It was served with a Rossmore Oyster Pearl, sea succulents from Ballycotton and Kaluga Caviar.

For me, the best dish was a delicate chocolate Gateaux Opera which featured layers of chocolate cakes, each offering a different texture and flavour including an aged vinegar sponge- fantastic! It also featured Australian manjimup truffle, which suggests it was Chef Michael’s creation.

The service was fantastic throughout the evening - I would never have realised that it was the first night of the collaboration as the staff were so knowledgeable. They had great answers for any questions we had about the more obscure products - like the hamachi from Netherlands that formed the centrepiece of the Citrus Cured Hamachi dish.

The entire experience was truly immersive, with a look at some of the preserved ingredients from Terre’s kitchen garden, and also moving to the kitchen itself for 2 canapés and a look at some of the produce that would feature later on the menu.

The evening was a fascinating culinary journey and the future collaborations should be intruiging.