Restaurant review: Star Anise, Cork city

Star Anise is an old-school classic with all the vim and vigour of the newest kid on the block.

A YEAR or two ago, I heard tell of a purported food trend apparently emerging in London, a return to pre-celebrity chef days when the restaurant was the star, the chef merely some anonymous figure hidden away in the kitchen, though I have heard nothing more since.

Once upon a time and quite some time ago, only a troupe of rodents knocking out an especially bawdy cancan on the cheese trolley could have topped the sight of a chef spotted outside the kitchen, for the professional chef was very much a second-class citizen in the hospitality world, to be kept firmly out of sight at all times.