Ten years on from receiving their first Michael star, the Lady Helen at Mount Juliet has unveiled a new signature tasting menu for 2024.
John Kelly, executive chef at the Lady Helen, suggests in menu notes that the food on offer reflects his upbringing, locality, travels and – most of all – his personality. The nine-course menu begins with a smoked mackerel cone with horseradish, lemon and oscietra caviar, negotiates The vegetarian edition exchanges veal for roast cabbage, concentrates on the violet artichoke from the red mullet service, adding pickled shitakes, baby leek and chive buerre blanc but you’ll find plenty of similarities with both editions. Scroll to the end of menu links.
Kelly joined my colleagues on The KCLR Daily on Friday to share his thoughts on the new dining direction for 2024, where they’ve come from, are going, but more importantly and of note for food lovers, getting the simple things right in everything you do. As for why the Lady Helen got a Michelin star in the first place?
“You get it for what you do, don’t change what you do when you get it”, says Kelly about being first awarded a star in 2014, the same year as Campagne in Kilkenny city centre, and retaining it every year since. “A lot of people get it and go ‘I’ve got hero status now, I can do whatever I like’. But you get the recognition for what you have been doing, so you shouldn’t change what you’re doing, just try to improve it slightly. Don’t overthink it every day, go in and do what you do.”
“I think we did our own thing and we had our own stamp on the food. Every Michelin-star restaurant, they don’t set out what each one is. I think what they found in us was we were iconic, had our own style and when you came to the Lady Helen you tasted something different to what you could get anywhere else. That’s what they want (Michelin inspectors). There’s no set criteria, they don’t give you feedback and if you lose it they won’t tell you why or whatever, there’s no ten-point plan on how to get one. I think what they believed in us, they saw what we do, it’s different to everywhere else. Another Michelin-star restaurant will be different to Lady Helen but it’s of a certain standard. You could go to a restaurant on Saturday night, have a meal and go “wow, why doesn’t that have a star”. Go back the next week and you have a bad meal. It’s about consistency.”
Doing the simple things right
Listening to John Kelly, one thing is very apparent – he’s a stickler for getting the simple things right.
“My lads are sick of saying it, less is more. The hardest cooking to do is the simplest because you’ve nowhere to hide. So if I put three ingredients on the plate, the three ingredients have to be bang on.”
“There’s a famous chef in France, Joël Robuchon (named ‘chef of the century’ in 1989; he died in 2018) , he’s a three Michelin star chef and he had a dish on his menu, pomme purée a la truffe – truffle pomme purée – and he was known for it. “Mashed potato” was his thing, all jokes aside. Do the simple things well. If I give you a bowl of the best mashed potato here today, you’d remember that for the rest of your life.”
What’s on the menu?
When it comes to dining at the Lady Helen, things are changing for 2024 with the introduction of the set menu (including the vegetarian one), something they’ve not done in the ten years since their Michelin star award. That change to a set menu is being driven by customer needs and if I’m reading between the lines right, it also opens the door for more new faces along with return visitors to the dining room in Mount Juliet’s Manor House.
“We have veal on the menu, turbet, red mullet, but you have to know your audience and have to cook for your audience as well. There’s no point in me putting stuff on the menu that people won’t eat.”
“We change with the seasons. In a couple of weeks you’ll get white asparagus, morels. We’ve got wild garlic that grows on the estate, that’ll come in in about eight weeks. So you’re just following the calendar of the year. In the summer we’ll have spring lamb, different fish will come in. You follow the path yourself and put your own touch on it. We’ll get some local (produce) and some from Paris weekly as well so it’s a balance of both. From Paris we were getting pigeon, asparagus, morel mushrooms, at the moment we get chantarelles, just some stuff that we can’t get here.”
“Now, we’ve just gone with a single menu for the first time in ten years, but we’re following what the customer wants. So if you come into the Lady Helen, there’s a single menu. I’ve taken pigeon off because not everyone will eat pigeon. Going back to the point, you have to know your audeince. I can’t let me ego go “this is what I want, I’m the chef”. You have to know your audience. Thing about hospitality and restaurants, you have to get them (customers) back.”
On the mention of chantarelles and morels, I do get a laugh that Kelly suggests one of the things that amazes him is people who don’t eat mushrooms because they don’t like the texture, but they’ll eat a bowl of mushroom soup. I’m firmly in that category.
Of course, entertaining the thought of a night at a Michelin-star restaurant often brings about concerns over what you should wear, if you’ll need the good shirt and slacks or your best black dress. For the team at the Lady Helen, this isn’t the case.
“Dinner, first and foremost, is supposed to be fun”, says Kelly. “I don’t want a stiff, startchy envinronment and neither does anyone at Mount Juliet. We want you to come in, get a good product, good ambience, enjoy the night.”
You can check the menus and reservations at ladyhelen.ie. You can see what the Michelin Guide as to say about the Lady Helen here.
Lady Helen is open 6.30pm to 9.30pm Tuesday to Saturday. The new set menu is priced €140 per person with wine pairing an additional €75 per person.
