About the Author
Maura is a formidable woman with a strong family history of women in the food business. Her grandmother was a cook in Boston in the late 1800s and returned to Kenmare in the 1930s and built and owned her own grocery store in Kenmare. Since the early 1960s, Maura O’Connell Foley has been a chef owner of several successful businesses in Kenmare. Born in London during the war in 1942, she returned to Kenmare and opened a cake shop at the age of 19 with her mother, Agnes, who had worked as a professional baker in Fraser’s Tea Shop in Haverstock Hill. In 1963, Maura and Agnes expanded the business and opened a restaurant, with Maura following her true passion of cooking in the kitchen mainly with fresh local fish including sole, cod, Atlantic prawns and lobster.
Maura is largely self-taught, having completed a short course at Le Cordon Bleu in London in the 1960s and undertaking stages with great chefs including with Sonia Stevenson, the first women to earn a Michelin star in the UK. As well as her culinary skills, she has great artistic flair and a keen eye for interiors being a strong supporter of Irish art and crafts. In the early 1980s, she renovated an old school house in Kenmare, where she had once been a student herself, and opened The Limetree restaurant with her husband Tom. During her tenure at The Limetree, she received great acclaim both nationally and internationally and earned a Michelin Red M. Later, in the early 90s, she converted her uncle Packie’s grocery store to a more informal restaurant, Packie’s. In 1990, she purchased a run-down large Georgian house and after 5 years of meticulous renovations Shelburne lodge opened to guests in 1996. Maura continues to run Shelburne Lodge today with her husband Tom.
Working in close collaboration with Kenmare based graphic designer Eamonn O’Sullivan of Anchor Studio, the project was very much a labour of love, with Maura and her family undertaking the task of lovingly creating a beautiful book that would be a testament to her years of hard work and dedication to her craft. Not only a cookbook, My Wild Atlantic Kitchen features Maura’s culinary recollections and stories woven throughout accompanied by over one hundred photographs of her recipes captured by Lynda Kenny and Maria Bell. In keeping with her love of art and the Irish landscape, the book includes photography by nationally renowned landscape photographer Norman McCloskey, illustrations by artist Christine Bowen and paintings from internationally acclaimed Irish artist Pauline Bewick adding a unique artistic component.
