A year and a half ago, chef Robbie McCauley left behind the swanky kitchens of some of the UK and Ireland’s best restaurants to cook in a remote Irish cottage on a cliff overlooking the Atlantic.
The low, whitewashed, flagstone-roofed building surrounded by empty green fields, miles from the nearest town, looks the very definition of rural Ireland.
Close by are the Cliffs of Moher. This dramatic, windswept landscape carved by wild oceans stands on the westernmost edge of Europe and has made numerous movie appearances. To the north is Doolin, a village known for its traditional music scene.
Though popular with tourists, the far-flung setting and the cottage’s rustic appearance are a far cry from the white-linen-tableclothed world of fine dining. Expense-account diners and fashionistas are nowhere to be seen.
And yet, within months of McCauley and his wife Sophie opening Homestead Cottage in County Clare, the Michelin Guide gave it a star, while others have hailed it the best restaurant in Ireland — strong praise in a country known for culinary excellence.
The bucolic setting hasn’t done the restaurant any harm, with Michelin calling it “surely the most rural” of their newest winners, while noting the “wonderful Irish produce” at the heart of its menu.
It’s an achievement all the more remarkable given the precariousness of the restaurant industry in Ireland and many other countries in recent years, with the fate of many hanging on a metaphorical cliff edge just as vertiginous as the landscape on which Homestead Cottage is perched.
A new challenge
McCauley, from Scotland, and his French restaurateur wife seem more interested in the unique flavors of their westerly corner of Ireland than in winning awards.
“Our ethos is local, seasonal and the best quality we can find,” McCauley tells CNN.
McCauley has been living in the west of Ireland since 2013 but it would be unfair to call him a “blow-in,” as outsiders are known here.
His mother hails from the region and his grandfather was an independent dairy farmer here. McCauley says he always felt “a kind of a draw to Clare.”
After training at the Royal Academy of Culinary Arts in London and cooking in top restaurants like Number One in Edinburgh and Campagne in Kilkenny, Ireland, he took a job at the restaurant in Gregan’s Castle Hotel in the Burren, County Clare, where he ultimately became head chef, and met his future wife.
By 2023, McCauley was ready for a new challenge.
A local businessman offered the couple the lease on the 200-year-old stonemason’s cottage outside the village of Doolin near the famous Cliffs of Moher. McCauley was skeptical. It was Sophie, eight months pregnant at the time, who said they “might as well try it.”
Rave reviews
The couple liked the bones of the place.
“I think at the time, something kind of just fitted in my mind,” McCauley says.
The couple had six weeks to get the place up and running. And then, two weeks to the day before they opened, Sophie had baby Iris.
“It was definitely intense!” McCauley laughs.
But those first few weeks in July 2023 were quiet. Then came a rave review from The Irish Times and McCauley says “it just went crazy” after that. By February 2024 they had a Michelin star.
“That definitely wasn’t something that we had ever expected, especially so quickly,” says McCauley.
Homestead Cottage offers a set rather than à la carte menu, which means as little waste as possible. McCauley enjoys the “freedom to be able to adapt rather than be stuck to a menu that’s written.”
That might mean choosing garlic, broad beans and kohlrabi from their garden. This will be their fourth year growing asparagus and they’re looking forward to their patience paying off with their first good crop.
“The difference is night and day, for the flavor. And then you’re really cooking with the seasons.”
For McCauley Irish cuisine is not so much about the food, but the produce.
He calls Irish dairy “a world-class product” and thinks Ireland should take more pride in its beef and lamb. “There isn’t the grain pumped into them like in in so many countries. Ninety percent of it is finished on grass.”
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