'We started a seven course fine dining restaurant in the front room of our Kildare home'

"There aren't many home kitchens dishing out plates of pan-fried duck with cauliflower and almond purée, and warmed plum and ginger chutney on an average Saturday night. But at Audrey Byrne's kitchen at her home, The Ranch at Monasterevin in Co Kildare, things have been somewhat different. In 2020, the accountant went against what might well have been her own practical advice to open a fine dining restaurant. In her home. It was an endeavour that proved as rewarding as it was exhausting, says Byrne."

"It came to me that you could create the sort of restaurant that you would like to go to yourself; a very small, intimate one. All candles and flowers and nice music and just really personal, Byrne says. And that's what it became, a little personal restaurant in our dining room. We only sat 12 people, but after doing a six-week course at JP McMahon's cookery school in Galway, I kind of thought, 'Oh, God, I love creating dishes."

Audrey Byrne trained as an accountant but opened a small, intimate fine-dining restaurant in her period home, The Ranch, in Monasterevin, Co Kildare. She completed a six-week course at JP McMahon's cookery school in Galway and launched a seven-course tasting menu served to 12 guests in the dining room. Menu examples included pan-fried duck with cauliflower and almond purée and warmed plum and ginger chutney. Byrne continued her weekday accounting job and cooked on Saturdays, describing the experience as rewarding but physically gruelling. The operation was a family affair with her son selecting wines and family members serving and waiting tables. The property is listed at €695,000 with agent DNG Doyle.

Read at Irish Independent