Full Irish Breakfast

Munster. Modern Irish cooking largely began in this province. Ballymaloe House opened its dining room in 1964, Arbutus Lodge in Cork took the country's first Michelin star in 1974, Milleens started the farmhouse cheese revival in 1976, and the Ballymaloe Cookery School followed in 1983.

Ireland. Corned beef and cabbage is Irish-American, not Irish: it took shape among immigrants in nineteenth-century American cities where beef was cheap and bacon was not. At home the pork tradition held, and the modern Irish kitchen leans hardest on what the wet grass supports, which is butter, cream, cheese and grass-fed beef and lamb.

Europe. European cooking is built on the land and the seasons, wheat, butter, and cured pork in the north; olive oil, tomatoes, and seafood around the Mediterranean; preserved vegetables and hearty stews through long winters. Centuries of peasant tradition, guild craft, and royal courts refined techniques from French mother sauces to Italian fresh pasta and Central European baking. Regional identity runs remarkably deep, with a single dish often changing from one valley to the next.