The Irish women changing the face of Irish food at home and abroad

Legend has it that Irish food is genuinely so bad that no amount of bickering in the press can really move the global needle for the average diner. We all saw the derision on Rory McIlroy’s face when asked why he didn’t include more Irish food on his Masters-winning menu. The golfer shot back a devastatingly casual: “Because I’d like to enjoy it, too.” If that wasn’t enough of a blow to the national gastronomic ego, many of us winced through the viral clip of Below Deck star Daisy Kelliher frantically distancing herself from traditional Irish fare on a podcast, clarifying to the world that her family was different: “We had ratatouille!”

Naturally, the videos spread like wildfire, igniting TikToks, sprawling think-pieces, and fanning the flames of this immortal myth. How do we tackle this perception? How do we prove that Irish food can stand ten toes down against heavy hitters like France, Japan or Denmark? We look to the mná na hÉireann playing and changing the game all across the island of Ireland, of course.

Aishling Moore

Goldie, Cork

Aishling Moore is revolutionising how we think about the waters surrounding our island. With her ‘gill-to-fin’ approach to seafood, she champions local, sustainable Irish catch without an ounce of pretension. Moore’s menu features the lesser-known, smaller species that come up in the nets of day boats fishing out of Ballycotton. By taking what the sea provides on any given day rather than dictating a static menu, she aligns her kitchen with the rhythms of nature rather than the demands of commercial convenience, connecting the diner to the working-class roots of the Irish fishing industry while offering a world-class dining experience. For the average consumer, this means that you could go to Goldie over and over and be surprised (and delighted) by what’s on your plate every single time.

Gráinne O’Keefe

Mae, Dublin

If you want to see the exact moment the pendulum swings away from the old-school, meat-and-two-veg stereotype and into something fiercely contemporary, look no further than Gráinne O’Keefe’s cooking. For the IYKYK crowd, O’Keefe is already a much-name-dropped taste signifier. At her acclaimed Dublin restaurant Mae (named lovingly after her seanmháthair), O’Keefe builds complex, beautifully restrained menus strictly around peak-season Irish produce. Underneath Mae’s laidback, contemporary vibe is a chef with serious, heavyweight technical prowess. She also features Irish craftsmanship in her tableware. Her work proves that our local ingredients can stand toe-to-toe with any Parisian bistro. She also commands fierce loyalty from her friends and staff in a way that is not generally seen in her contemporaries. Her book “Go And Cook Yourself” cemented her as a fierce champion of Irish food.

Danni Barry

Danni Barry recently departed from Ballynahinch Castle. As one of the few female chefs in Ireland to hold a Michelin star, what makes her career so profoundly important to the national conversation is not the awards she has won, but how she won them. Barry reaches directly into the soil of our agrarian roots to whip out traditionally working-class ingredients and make them sing. She has a genuinely unparalleled ability to take what was historically dismissed as ‘peasant food’ and transform it through technical mastery and deep respect. If you are ever lucky enough to eat something crafted by her, you’d have a hard time saying “Irish food is crap.”

Jess Murphy

Kai, Galway

Jess Murphy has spent years proving that community, local agriculture, and world-class dining are deeply intertwined. Murphy has a deep, empathetic connection to the land and the people who work it, which shines through in her daily menus. Furthermore, she uses her platform to advocate for inclusivity and social justice within the hospitality industry. Her work often transforms the traditional, historically toxic kitchen hierarchy into a space of community, meitheal and mentorship. By embracing the wild, rugged terroir of the West and cooking with an open, generous heart, Jess Murphy has enhanced the face of modern Irish food, ensuring our culinary narrative is defined by warmth, quality, and an unshakeable sense of place.

Katie Sanderson

White Mausu and The Fumbally Café

Best known as the creative force behind the legendary White Mausu condiments and as a foundational figure behind Dublin’s iconic The Fumbally café, Katie Sanderson possesses an absolute genius for blending complex Asian flavour profiles with the realities of modern Irish lives – her Peanut Rayu changed how the modern Irish foodie eats at home. Sanderson represents a culinary landscape that is secure enough in its own identity to play, experiment, and integrate.

Tara Gartlan

Pastry chef and chocolatier

Tara Gartlan is a formidable powerhouse in Ireland, brimming with pastry talent. Before forming her own award-winning chocolate company, Gartlan led the pastry sections in some of the country’s most demanding, Michelin-starred kitchens, all while being a coeliac herself. Pastry is a discipline that leaves absolutely zero room for error; it requires a scientific mind, intense precision, and an extraordinary level of artistic vision. Gartlan possesses all three in spades. As anyone who has ever gorged themselves on a box of her truly decadent offerings knows, she has yet to put a foot wrong. One bite of her Salted Caramel Bonbon and you would be able to die happy knowing Ireland has produced one of the greatest chocolatiers of our times.

Darina Allen

Ballymaloe, Cork

No list of all the movers and shakers putting Irish food on the map would be complete without the original game-changer herself, the undisputed matriarch of modern Irish food. Long before the ‘Irish food is bad’ myth, Allen was fiercely defending and teaching the value of traditional Irish cooking. During an era when the industry was obsessed with mimicking French haute cuisine or leaning into highly processed convenience foods, Allen was championing the forgotten arts of soda bread baking, butter churning, foraging, and organic farming. Taking up the mantle from her mother-in-law, Allen saw the inherent dignity and brilliance in the food of our ancestors and refused to let it be erased. Through her exhaustive cookbooks and tireless advocacy for farmers’ markets and the Slow Food movement, she laid the foundation for the entire modern Irish food era we are lucky to be living in now.

The women running Ireland’s top kitchens are proving that Irish food is, in fact, the foundation of a massive cultural and economic revolution. Our food is as diverse, brilliant, and as resilient as the women who are currently defining it. We don’t need to eat Gubbeen every night to prove we are Irish, but we absolutely need to stop pretending that our culinary scene isn’t world-class.

If you genuinely think Irish food is bad today, you simply aren’t paying attention. We don’t need to look to foreign gastrodiplomacy campaigns or wait for French tyre companies to validate our worth. We just need to book a table and buy a box of chocolates. It is time to stop fighting in the click-driven trenches, trust the women in the kitchen, and finally enjoy our dinner.