‘Dining with the Stars’ time in the Cashel Palace Hotel

Cashel has always had a fine selection of classy dining places and now a restaurant in the new-look Cashel Palace Hotel has been awarded a Michelin Star. Earlier this month, The Michelin Guide to Great Britain and Ireland awarded the coveted title to The Bishop’s Buttery located at the five-star hotel which reopened in 2022.

“It was a very exciting announcement to receive. I was thrilled for the team, thrilled for the hotel and thrilled for the area,” Adriaan Bartels, the General Manager of the Cashel Palace, says. He is the face of the hotel which has quickly become a central part of life in Cashel this decade.

The award is testament to many linked with the hotel and the surrounding countryside as local produce is often sourced from Tipperary farmers as well as other regional food producers. Adriaan explains to me the importance of the award and what is involved in achieving it: “The cuisine has to be of a certain standard.

“Inspections happen over a full year. They come unannounced. Nobody knows when the inspectors come as they don’t tell you. They don’t tell you afterwards either so you don’t know if they have been there or not and then you just simply find out before the announcement that you’ve been awarded the Star.”

The Bishop’s Buttery is located downstairs in the hotel and there is always a steady flow through the doors. While the hotel is renovated, many aspects of the original building keep that link with the past. The restaurant is a key part of daily life in the hotel:

“It is the main restaurant in the hotel and it is part of the fine dining offering for the hotel. The interest has peaked enormously since we announced the news. Bookings are starting to flow in and people are choosing to eat in The Bishop’s Buttery. It has had a very positive impact already.”

Stephen Hayes is the Director of Culinary at the Cashel Palace Hotel and the Head Chef at The Bishop’s Buttery is Stefan McEnteer. They also have an “impeccable team, who work with the utmost pride”, according to the Michelin Guide, and the buzz is good around the dining experience and the hotel in general.

The success is testament to the work put in by so many. Adriaan says: “It is a team effort. It is absolutely a team effort as Stephen Hayes is in charge of the overall food offering but he works very closely with the Head Chef of the Buttery, Stefan McEnteer.

“Everyone else in the kitchen helps in terms of providing ideas and providing the cuisine behind the menu and I’d like to congratulate the team in the restaurant and in the kitchen on their success: “A lot of work went into it, it wasn’t an overnight success.”

The last couple of years have been a big journey for all within the hotel as it has become a place which is full of energy according to Adriaan: “There was a closure period of about four or five years where nothing happened in the hotel and when we opened there was a lot of interest and intrigue in seeing what had been done by the Magnier family in terms of the refurbishment of the property; so there was a huge interest both locally and nationally. When it opened it was like Piccadilly Station at times!

“Things have calmed down quite a lot now. We have tried to establish ourselves as a destination in itself where people come to Cashel and the area to enjoy the activities such as walks, heritage and food offerings that this beautiful part of the world offers.

“We now have a base where people can stay and enjoy it. Tipperary is accessible for people from Cork, Dublin, Limerick and Waterford so it is a meeting centre for business people and families to get together for a cup of tea even.”

I asked Adriaan what could be done locally by politicians, councils or tourist groups to improve the tourist offering or what could he see that would be a positive change in terms of tourism in the coming years across Tipperary: “I suppose the promotion and development of Tipperary as a county,” he says.

“We had a conference to discuss that recently, so it will be interesting to see what comes out of that. Anything that helps us to get people to stay in this area is really something that would be of benefit to us all.

“We have the hugely successful amenity of the Blueway for example along the River Suir. We have some beautiful walks in the area. The thoroughbred industry is also great as it is synonymous with Tipperary and then of course the suppliers of good food.

“The Tipperary Food Producers are a very strong magnet for people coming here to enjoy the wonderful produce we have. It is just about keeping that uppermost in people’s minds when they want to decide where to go to have a holiday. We are an hour from Cork, two hours from Dublin - so we are very close to major centres that it is easy for people to get to. We just have to bang that Tipperary drum.”

The beat to a better, more tourist friendly Tipperary has got a little louder with this latest success. Let’s all keep it going.