My Wild Atlantic Kitchen: Recipes and Recollections (Maura O'Connell Foley)

U.K. IMPORT

This book is a compilation of Maura O’Connell Foley’s favourite recipes created throughout her career in Kenmare, County Kerry, Ireland spanning over six decades. The dishes follow Maura’s ethos of keeping food simple, cooking with care and using the best available local produce. Several years in the making, this book is a comprehensive collection capturing over 250 recipes of the food Maura has loved to cook throughout her life and successful career as cook and restaurateur. 

The book features stand-out dishes from the first tea shop she and her mother, Agnes, opened in 1961 to The Purple Heather Restaurant and Piano Bar, The Lime Tree Restaurant, Packie’s and Shelburne Lodge which she continues to run today with her husband Tom. Maura’s recipes are seasonal, classic and carefully organised into 8 chapters: Breakfast, Starters, Fish, Meat, Vegetables, Desserts & Baking, Sauces, Stocks & Staples, as well as a dedicated section on Dinner Parties. 

Working in collaboration with Kenmare based graphic designer Éamonn O’Sullivan of Anchor Studio, the project was very much a labour of love, with Maura undertaking the task of lovingly creating a beautiful book that would be a testament to her years of hard work and dedication to her craft. Not only a cookbook, the book features Maura’s culinary recollections and stories woven throughout accompanied by over one hundred photographs of her recipes captured by Lynda Kenny and Maria Bell. In keeping with her love of art and the Irish landscape, the book includes photography by nationally renowned landscape photographer Norman McCloskey, illustrations by artist Christine Bowen and paintings from internationally acclaimed Irish artist Pauline Bewick.