Is there any better judge of a country’s food than a seasoned diplomat used to the fine lunches, dinners and cocktail parties that we imagine punctuate their rarefied world?

We asked seven such experienced operators based in Ireland for their views on Irish culinary offerings and what they miss most about the food at home.

Ambassador Melitta Schubert, Austria

Ambassador Melitta Schubert loves discovering new Irish restaurants. Photograph: Alan Betson

When ambassador Schubert is coming back to Dublin from a trip home, she likes to bring “a loaf of dark bread fresh from the oven”. This, she says, is the one food item she misses from her native country, with all her other favourite foodstuffs and ingredients generally available in Irish supermarkets.

The only exception is quark, which she uses for her “beloved” topfenpalatschinken, or sweet pancakes made with a creamy quark filling.

“The available fat-free quark is just way too healthy,” she says.

Ambassador Schubert loves discovering new Irish restaurants too and has particularly enjoyed seafood at King Sitric in Howth, Co Dublin and chowder at Johnny Fox’s in Glencullen, Co Dublin.

She also namechecks Aqua in Howth – “best fish with a great view” and steak at Fire Steakhouse in Dublin 2. For pizza, she likes Little Pyg in the Powerscourt Townhouse Centre.

“The list is being extended with every new experience,” she says.

Chowder is the dish she recommends most to fellow Austrians visiting Ireland, along with “surprise, surprise”, fish and chips as a “classical Irish dish”.

“And for meat lovers of course the excellent steaks and Irish stew.”

Has anything surprised her about Irish food? “I did not know that so many different ways of serving potatoes exist; you always find them on your plate,” she says.

Does she have a guilty Irish food pleasure? “Tons of Irish butter.”

Ambassador Anna-Carolina (Lina) Holmström van der Weyden, Sweden

Anna-Carolina (Lina) Holmström van der Weyden enjoys a traditional Irish stew, which reminds her of kalops, a classic Swedish beef stew

Swedish ambassador, Anna-Carolina (Lina) Holmström van der Weyden is a particular fan of the Irish breakfast, which she acknowledges probably