Dan Mullane (56) is a celebrity chef, television personality and proprietor of the restaurant and four star hotel, The Mustard Seed and Echo Lodge in Ballingarry. He explains how his parents inspired him and why his visiting fox is the best fed in the country.
I rise at 8am and have a cup of tea with staff. I see how the weather is looking and how last night went and that sets the mood for the day. We feed our 22 Rhode Island red hens the leftovers but I find that in these recessionary times leftovers are getting fewer and fewer. People eat every scrap. Of course that’s not good news for our visiting fox who gets fed gourmet cuisine every midnight! We feed him so he doesn’t feed on our hens.
I’ve ran The Mustard Seed for 28 years. We renovated a former convent which was build in 1884. We also restored the garden and now have a stunning display of vegetables, herbs and flowers all of which are organically grown and used in the kitchen. I got my love of cooking and gardeing from my parents growing up on a farm-house in Castelmahon in West Limerick. My father had a massive connection to the earth and was able to pick the best nettles and mushrooms. My mother would grow seeds of all descriptions by the range in the kitchen and I was fascinated by the process. That was the inspiration for name ‘The Mustard Seed’.
I went to Blackrock College in Dublin and went back there to film the RTÉ One television series Guerrilla Gourmet which was great fun. I also trained at Cathal Brugha Street before I embarked to Switzerland for a time. My idol is restaurateur Gerry Galvin from Drumcollogher who sadly passed away earlier this year. He was a true original.
I feel like the caretaker of the house and view it as a sanctuary. It’s a very interactive experience between the people, the gardens, the art (we have an eclectic collection that we’ve gathered throughout the years) and the animals. Our cat, Ms Tansy, who passed away at the age of 18, was famous among guests and used to be mentioned constantly on TripAdvisor – “Love the place, Love the food, Love the Cat”.
I’m not into technology and I love writing and receiving letters. I recently received a letter from a Belfast man who used to visit the house every year with his wife. He didn’t come in a while and recently arrived with a new lady and explained that his wife had passed away a few years back. He is now due to be married in Enniskillen and wrote to tell me the wedding party are travelling all the way down here for the reception. The advice I live by is “If the heart sends a message, do it”
