Kevin Thornton is deadly serious about his food, isn't he? Tom Doorley finds that he's also capable of playfulness
The Doheny & Nesbitt school of communication has it that Kevin Thornton and a well-heeled backer are looking for new premises for his two-Michelin-star restaurant. And so, emboldened by a particularly satisfactory if uncomfortably expensive lunch, I thought I might raise the issue with the man himself. Thornton firmly dismissed the notion, smilingly suggesting that if he ever did move it would be out of the country.
This may well have been a joke, but the fact remains that Thornton, who is one of the finest chefs Ireland has seen, does not feel appreciated in the land of his birth. And he has a point. The pursuit of excellence has never been easy here, and even in 21st-century Ireland we breed begrudgers with staggering fecundity. Restaurant Patrick Guilbaud is still criticised by portly men in suits for the size of its portions, for heaven's sake, and people speak of the less than wonderful dining room at Thornton's as if it somehow gets into the cooking. And then there are the prices.
Thornton's is certainly one of the most expensive places to eat in Ireland, but you can spend a good proportion of the price of a meal here in many lesser establishments and get lousy value for money. Thornton's tends to deliver a level of excellence that would cost you much the same in London, New York or even France. It's a place that needs to be approached with high expectations, a moderate appetite and a fat wallet. It was ever thus at this end of the scale.
You can have the set lunch of two courses for €30, which is what I did, letting the companion roam free on the a la carte. Had we both stuck with the set lunch, I reckon we could have got out for as little as €130 with no hardship. For food and service of this order, that's pretty keen value.
My €30 set-menu starter of white asparagus with truffled hollandaise can also be had on the a la carte - for €30. And very good it was, too: four stalks of intensely flavoured warm asparagus, neatly tied with a strip of green leek and sitting in a little pool of sauce that combined sharpness and fungal depth. Small, certainly, but pretty well exquisite.
The companion's roast quail with quail egg in brioche, accompanied by shallot and thyme sauce, was almost as simple as it sounds, although the jewel-like presentation defied my powers of description. It combined a pleasing crispness with moist meat, and the quail's egg with brioche was a very sophisticated version of what you do when you cut a round out of a slice of bread and fry it with an egg in the centre.
Back to the set menu. My main course was fillet of endangered cod (wicked old me), golden potato rings, braised white onion, prawn bisque and sabayon. Flecks of crisp spud, each smaller than my smallest fingernail, were tiled into a canopy over the fish, which was surrounded by the creamy, sweet onion and a saffron-infused sauce that was the essence of Dublin Bay prawn. It was even better than it sounds, reflecting Thornton's immaculate judgment. For me it was the dish of the lunch.
Milk-fed lamb, courgette clafoutis and wild garlic with a light garlic jus, from the a la carte, was not based on the sort of meat you get from the average butcher. Served with its liver and kidney, all perfectly pink but not, thankfully, raw in the middle, the lamb involved very skilful cooking. And if clafoutis suggests to you a rather leathery batter, then this one was very different: lightly binding slices of still al-dente courgette. The jus, gently scented with thyme rather than the usual and more robust rosemary, was served separately; it allowed the delicacy of the meat to shine through.Thornton's love of food as theatre came into play at the end. In addition to petits fours and coffee were lollipops encrusted in space dust and ice pops made from multicoloured layers of unsweetened fruit purees. Fab. Perhaps Thornton doesn't take everything as seriously as we often think.
The bill, with mineral water, a glass of red and a half-bottle of both red and white, came to €207, excluding service.
Thornton's, 128 St Stephen's Green, Dublin 2, 01-4787008
WINE CHOICE If you want an exceptional range of Burgundies from the likes of Leflaive, Dujac, Boillot and Gros, this is the place, as long as you are happy to burn through your plastic. But Thornton's cheaper wines are also excellent: de Wetshof's glorious Chardonnay sur Lie and Domaine de Terre Mégère are €33 well spent. Sipp Mack Pinot Blanc (€31), Domaine de l'Aumonier Sauvignon (€28) and Moulin de Gassac (€28) are all excellent. Big-spenders might consider Léoville Las Cases 1983, fully mature, at €375, rather than the now tiring Château Pétrus 1979, at €1,522. We had halves of Domaine des Buissones Sancerre (€28) and Domaine la Treille Fleurie (€28).