Grace creates new career from award winning ‘Morsel’

With pic from John K

A CREATIVE streak and a talent for cooking have made a dream come true for a young Tulla woman, who has given up her job in the capital to relocate to her native Clare where she now runs a food business. 

Grace Corry from Crag Hill is a familiar and welcome face for many loyal customers in Tulla who flock to Morsel, which operates outside the local hurling field from Tuesday to Saturday, from morning to lunchtime. Right now, the business is celebrating its first major food award, having just taken the top prize for savoury pastry at the Clonmel Show. 

“It was my first time to enter a food competition and I’m just delighted with the win,” Grace said. “I entered some sausage rolls that I regularly sell from Morsel. I hand make the puff pastry and get the pork from Liam O’Meara’s in Tulla, because I really want them to be something special. They are very popular and a lot of people probably know me as ‘the sausage roll lady’, at this stage.”

Having previously worked in the arts in the capital, the outbreak of Covid-19 played a major role in speeding up Grace’s plans to leave her day job and making the leap into running her own business. 

“I’m up and running just over a year,” she explained. “Up to June 2021, I was living in Dublin and operating a wholesale pastry business to other cafés. I thought, ‘Why now do this myself?’. I was also working at Smock Alley Theatre and managing front-of-house. The theatre sector was hit really hard by Covid. Our director, Lucy Ryan, looked after all of us and made sure we got whatever work that was going, but everything was really up in the air for the sector. There’s a big commercial kitchen at the theatre and I had been given permission to use it during the early days of Morsel.

Covid made my plans move a lot more quickly and I gave myself three months to try things out. I was lucky to have the option of going back to work in Dublin, but as it turns out, I stayed in Tulla and I’m delighted to be back.”

Grace sourced her quirky truck – formerly an ice-cream van – from the Donegal-Derry border and has given it a new lease of life in Clare. Her talent for cooking is something that runs in the family. “My mother, Mary, is a great cook and I was definitely inspired by her,” Grace said. “There’s five kids in the family and all of us can cook, including the two boys. My mother definitely instilled a love of cookery and herself and dad (Eddie) are delighted with the business and with the award.”

As well as her regular offering in Tulla, Grace also caters to a range of events from weddings to birthdays and, since the pandemic, has been a God-send for those getting used to doing more socialising out doors. “I think people really enjoy having somewhere to get a coffee and a pastry when they’re meeting up for a walk, or whatever it is,” she said. “I’m delighted to say that I now have regulars who come along on certain days and some come every day, so it’s lovely to get to meet and chat to people.”

Updating her Instagram and Facebook channels (@morselpastryshop) also keeps Grace busy and underlines the importance of being multi-skilled when running a business. She is also planning to get back out to some other popular East Clare locations. 

“I was at The 12 O’Clock Hills last summer and will be getting out there again,” she said. “With bookings for events, I get to do a bit of everything, which is lovely. Tulla, from Tuesday to Saturday is my main location and I’m delighted with how things are going there.”