Noel Cullen, 54; Sought to Restore Elegance and Variety of Irish Cooking

Noel Cullen, an educator and author who dedicated himself to dispelling the notion that all Irish food is boiled and bland and relies on the potato, died Saturday in Walpole, Mass. He was 54.

Cullen wrote “Elegant Irish Cooking,” which offered about 200 recipes as proof of the elegance and variety of Irish cuisine. Included were dishes such as Roast Pike With Lovage and Mullaghmore Lobster Souffle. Cullen created the latter dish when he was a personal chef to the late Lord Louis Mountbatten, the Allied commander in Southeast Asia during World War II.

Cullen blamed the great Irish famine of the late 1840s for the bad reputation Irish cooking has endured. The famine “took away all the elegance” of Irish cooking, turning food into strictly a means of sustenance, not fine dining, he said. Especially in the United States, Irish cuisine became defined by “potato, corned beef, cabbage or booze,” he added.

He proudly pointed out that Irish monks in the 6th and 7th centuries introduced garlic to much of the world, that an Irishman invented mayonnaise and that Irish immigrants founded many French wineries.

Born in Dublin, Cullen became a culinary apprentice at 13. He held bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Johnson & Wales University and a doctorate in education from Boston University, where he taught culinary arts and food and beverage management. He also was a former president of the American Culinary Federation.