Graham Neville's cooking is like a conjuring game. How do you get the most ethereal texture with goat's cheese to lay beside thinly sliced beets? With the tactile meat of partridge, what unctuous partner will give the best contrast? How do you finish a killer dessert of passionfruit soufflé to give both a temperature and texture variation?
These conjurings are going on all the time with his food, and it makes for beautiful, satisfying and engaging eating, right from the off, when a amuse plate of langoustine, mushroom tortellini and truffle broth ushers you into the warm, sensual concoction of dishes that is his signature style.
From then on, everything we ate at dinner in Restaurant Forty One was simply perfect, every dish clean, distinct, considered and exactingly executed and delivered. In the past we have compared Mr Neville's cooking to the great Basque chef, Andoni Luis Aduriz, of Mugaritz, near San Sebastian, and for once we may have been right. Essences and textures are what Mr Neville is after, so he whips the bejasus out of Bluebell Falls goat's cheese until it is a cloud of salty, creamy ethereality, just perfect with those sliced beets. With partridge, perfectly cooked, he has a small slice of foie gras, so tender that it reminds you that Ken Tynan once described foie gras as “liver ice cream”. This was that liver. His trick with the soufflé is to slip in a quenelle of cold ice cream into the centre of the dish, turning the most sophisticated piece of cooking into a kiddie delight.
And that's the thing about the food in Forty One: its serious, but it's fun, fun to eat, fun to think about, fun to share. And the mood of the food chimes through the restaurant, where the service is excellent, the wine list is smart, the ambience both intimate and clamorous. It's a fun place to meet and enjoy dinner. “Celebratory eating” is how Caroline Byrne of the Bridgestone parish described the food, and that is just right – the lattice of Granny Smith apples with Annagassan smoked salmon and Clogherhead crab; the starring role of crushed jerusalem artichoke and brussel sprout leaves with Wicklow venison and smoked heather sauce; magnificent passionfruit soufflé with cold mango ice cream – all of the kitchen's skills are devoted to making happy food. We had a wonderful time in Forty One, and Graham Neville is a chef on top of his game.
Restaurant Forty One, 41 St Stephen's Green, Dublin 2
www.residence.ie
Tel: (01) 662 0000
