McIlroy includes elk sliders and colcannon in Masters dinner menu

Rory McIlroy will serve elk sliders and champ - aka colcannon — as part of the menu for the Masters Club Dinner he will host before he bids to win back-to-back green jackets at Augusta National next month.

In a teleconference organised by Augusta National ahead of his Masters defence, the Holywood star said he “can’t wait” to host the traditional Tuesday night dinner for Masters champions.

“Firstly, my mom does these really, really nice dates stuffed with goat’s cheese wrapped in bacon. So I've put those on the appetisers list,” McIlroy revealed.  

“So thanks to Rosie for that one.  “In the build-up to the Masters last year, I was eating a lot of elk. I got this big shipment of elk, and I was eating a lot of that, and I didn't want elk to be the main course, because I didn't know if everyone would like that, so I incorporated it into the appetisers.  

“So I'm doing grilled elk sliders, which I think is fun. And then another nice appetiser that I think everyone likes is rock shrimp tempura. So sort of a crowd pleaser with that one.  

“And then I wanted to try to bring a little bit of, I guess, the local, local ingredients in. So I'm doing a Georgia peach and ricotta flatbread with hot honey.

“So hopefully that'll go down well with the drinks.  “And then, as we move on to the first course, my wife, Erica and I, our favourite restaurant, or one of our favourite restaurants, is in New York. It's called Le Bernardin and this is a dish from that restaurant.  

“It's a yellowfin tuna carpaccio. It's a really thin slice of French baguette with a really thin slice of foie gras on top of that, and then tuna carpaccio.  

“So that's a fun one. You know, the club worked with me on that as well. They went up to the restaurant and worked with chefs and made sure that, you know, they wanted to, obviously, get it right for the night. So that's really cool.  

“Moving on to the main course again, this dinner is obviously an amazing honour to be able to host it, but at the same time, I want everyone to enjoy it.  

“So I went for two different options for the main course, a wagyu fillet mignon for people who want red meat or a fillet of seared salmon.  

“And then for the sides, a lot of different sides, I've done traditional Irish champ. When I was a kid, I used to eat champ by the bowlful.  

“So, trying to tie in a little bit of my upbringing, there are some sauteed brussels sprouts, some glazed carrots with brown butter, and then trying to bring a little bit of that local flavour back in some crispy Vidalia onion rings.  

“And then for dessert, I think very much a crowd pleaser, sticky toffee pudding with vanilla ice cream and warm toffee sauce.”

Wine will come from the Augusta National wine cellar with a little inspiration from Shane Lowry, who bought him a case of wine from Augusta National’s wine cellar (at $1,200 a bottle approx.) the evening of his Masters triumph.

|So for the wines we're starting off with a 2015 Salon Brut champagne,” McIlroy said..

“And then followed by a 2022 Domaine Leflaive Batard Montrachet, and it's the first-ever white wine that I actually liked. So to have, you know, to be able to serve that is something that's sort of important to me.

“And then for the red wine we're receiving a 1990 Chateau Lafite Rothschild from Pauillac in Bordeaux. That is the wine that I drank the night that I won the Masters, so obviously brings back some great memories. You know, Shane Lowry had a little bit to do with getting that wine, so I want to shout him out for that, too. But that will be amazing to serve.

“To finish off, we're going with a 1989 Chateau D'Yquem dessert wine from Sauternes in Bordeaux, as well. Obviously '89, my birth year, and I think every great meal deserved to be finished off with Chateau D'Yquem. It is like liquid gold.”

Geoff Shackelford reported that the Telegraph’s restaurant critic William Sitwell writes that McIlroy’s menu “tells the story of a young boy’s journey from a modest semi in Northern Ireland to the status of a Sporting God,” then says, “it’s exactly the menu you’d get if Nobu did a pop-up in a rural Irish pub. There’s rock-shrimp tempura and yellowfin tuna carpaccio, the American/Japanese dishes that Nobu Matsuhisa made famous and which are now on the menus of every super yacht and chic Gstaad chalet.”