An Irish Chef in France

Euro-Toques chef Martin Dwyer, is much missed in Ireland since he and his wife Sile sold their eponymous restaurant in Waterford and moved to France. They now live in the Languedoc, where they take guests - and feed them very well.

This month Martin enjoys a blast from the past and the story of how a new dish was born: Scallops Torrades

About twelve years ago, in 2003, Euro-Toques Ireland asked would I be part of the team of chefs to go to Brussels to cook some typically Irish dishes in the European House of Parliament . This was for an annual event, organised by Euro-Toques, in which member countries could showcase their native dishes at what they called a cocktail party.

Euro-Toques had asked myself, Brid Torrades from Sligo and Ross Lewis of Chapter One in Dublin to cook and present the food at this event. Ross, who was our Commissioner General at the time, had to cry off at the last minute due to illness so all that remained was Brid, myself and a large insulated coffin sized box of the very best of Irish food and drink.

After some adventures and payment of an additional €250 to Ryanair for excess baggage for the coffin, we struggled into the parliament building and unloaded our box in the vast kitchens where all the preparations were to happen.

I think it was only then that we realised that we had no notion what on earth we were going to do with the food in the coffin. It wasn’t until we opened it that we knew for sure what was inside. Ross had of course painstakingly gathered together the most wonderful fresh Irish ingredients but the recipes of how they were to be put together were with him in his sick bed in Dublin.

In the meantime we were surrounded by splendid activity as 12 European countries’ teams of chefs busied themselves getting ready their dishes for the party. These were serious teams, some like the Italians had as many as 12 members, some like the Germans had dirndl clad madchen to serve their food, the Belgians even had a Hot Chocolate Fountain which they were assembling. We had to think fast and on our feet if we weren’t going to disgrace our native land.

On examination the coffin was full of the most fantastic goodies. There were wonderful farmhouse cheeses, no problem with them they could stand alone, as could the bottles of Baileys Irish Cream and the 12 year old Irish Malt Whiskey, the wild smoked Salmon just had to be sliced and put out on trays, but, what were we going to do with the bags of scallops, still beautifully fresh and smelling of the sea.

Ross had mentioned something about wrapping them in rashers of bacon and grilling them. That notion seemed just too fiddly to Brid and myself, and would the delicate scallops be over cooked by the time the bacon was crisp?

A combination of Brid, Myself and Desperation (an even more maternal agent than necessity in the conception of inventions) came up very quickly with the method of cooking the scallops.

We diced and crisped the streaky rashers on a good heat and put to one side. We trimmed the scallops and used the trimmings to make a stock. Then we seared the scallops on a hot pan, deglazed with some 12 year old Irish Whiskey, added some cream which we had wheedled from the parliament chefs and then reduced until thickened and so was born one of the most delicious methods of cooking scallops that I know.

I’m not alone in this, we created quite a stir at the “Cocktail” with our scallops dish. There was a queue at all times at the Irish Stand as the word got around about the “ delicieux Coquilles St Jacques Irlandaise”.

In the end despite our chronic lack of manpower the Irish stand made a very creditable showing. We even managed to get a good press as the Fine Gael MEP Mary Banotti, who had been at a cookery class I had run, brought over all her MEP friends to sample our wares and created the kind of buzz around the Irish stand which made even the press interested.

A good chef is an economical person and there was no way that this delicious method of cooking scallops was going to be let die on one, admittedly fairly illustrious, outing.
Back in Waterford and in the kitchen in Dwyers I decided to put this method of cooking scallops on my menu. As Brid Torrades was certainly the second parent of this dish (and Desperation the midwife) I thought I should call it after her.  So Scallops Torrades was born.

It was a hit, also it made a great talking point with customers, who only had to say “What does Torrades mean?” to be given the full story. I even created variations on the “Torrades” theme with dishes like Turbot Torrades which was poached turbot served with the same scallops.

It has also travelled well. Type “Torrades” into Google and the first hit you will get will be my recipe. Type in “Scallops Torrades” and you will see that it has featured in restaurants as far afield as Hong Kong and Michigan. Do I mind? Not at all. I’m flattered and delighted.

Ten years ago Brid and myself were again asked to cook in the Brussels Parliament house for the “Euro-Toque Cocktail”. No need to tell you, I’m sure, that we brought copious supplies of scallops, bacon and whiskey (Jameson’s 12 year old this time.)

This time we had Abigail Colleran, Bocuse d’Or Prize winner, and Brid’s daughter Fiona to help us so it was much less fraught and we did know in advance what we were going to cook. Scallops Torrades was again a great success.

The crowning moment of the day was when the Euro-Toque general secretary of the time, Bernard Fournier, came around with the EU fisheries minister and stopped at our stand. “Ah!” they said “The wonderful Irish Scallops and whiskey dish” (as they tucked in). “It is such a wonderful traditional dish isn’t it” Brid and I nodded mutely.

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Martin Dwyer started cooking professionally over 40 years ago in the legendary “Snaffles Restaurant” in Dublin. After a time in a Relais Chateau in Anjou and in “The Wife of Bath” in Kent he opened his own much acclaimed restaurant, “Dwyers”, in Waterford in 1989. In 2004 he sold this and moved south to France where he and his wife Síle bought and restored an old presbytery in a village in the Languedoc. They now run Le Presbytère as a French style Chambre d’Hôte. Martin however is far too passionate about food to give up cooking so they now enjoy serving dinner to their customers on the terrace of Le Presbytère on warm summer evenings. Martin runs occasional cookery courses in Le Presbytère and Síle’s brother Colm does week long Nature Strolls discovering the Flora and Fauna of the Languedoc. 

Le Presbytère can be seen at: www.lepresbytere.net; 
email: martin@lepresbytere.net

Twitter: www.twitter.com/DwyerThezan