You can take the kid out of Northern Ireland, but you can’t take Northern Ireland out of the kid. At least, you can’t extract his favorite childhood foods.
The menu for Rory McIlroy’s Masters Champions Dinner, which will be served Tuesday at Augusta National, partly reflects the refined, cosmopolitan tastes of a global superstar who long ago stopped worrying about commas in his bill. (The tuna carpaccio in the offing is McIlroy’s go-to order at Le Bernardin in New York.) There will be wagyu filet mignon, peach and ricotta flatbread as a nod to Georgia culinary tradition, rock shrimp tempura, and grilled elk sliders, because, as McIlroy explained when he first unveiled the menu, he ate a lot of elk in the run-up to last year’s Masters.
Who knew that was the diet of champions.
The wines alone signal the occasion, including a 2025 Salon Brut Le Mesnil-sur-Oger, a 2022 Domaine Leflaive Puligny-Montrachet, and a 1990 Château Lafite Rothschild. The Montrachet will run you a mere $300 a bottle. The other two top $1,200. The vintage on the Lafite, 1990, was the year McIlroy was born, and he has described it as “liquid gold.” He’s been diving into wine — not as deep as he dives into his ShotLink data, but deep enough to pick out special bottles to cellar. He says he was “intentional” about the pairings, approaching them as he might a productive range session, with the club’s sommeliers to guide him in lieu of a swing coach.
For all of that, the meal is also a trip down memory lane. The appetizers include bacon-wrapped dates, a dish his mother Rosie made often when he was growing up. And alongside the wagyu — or the seared salmon, for anyone who finds a slab of wagyu a touch ambitious — there will be Irish champ, the traditional mashed potato dish that originated in Northern Ireland. Last but not least, dessert will be another cross-the-pond staple: sticky toffee pudding.
Some things don’t just stick to your ribs. They stay with you wherever you go.
