'Everyone is calling my parents': Baltimore chef over the moon with Michelin star
Ahmet Dede was awarded a Michelin star for his new restaurant in West Cork
In a year that saw most restaurants around the world for largely shuttered because of Covid 19 restrictions, Tuesday night's online Michelin awards ceremony, hosted by Davina McCall, was a joyous celebratory sprinkling of stardust on the restaurant industry, a sector that has suffered more than almost any other during rolling lockdowns, with emotional responses from many of the awarded chefs as they retained or were even awarded new Michelin stars.
All 17 Irish Michelin-starred restaurants (and the three in Northern Ireland) held on to their stars but the only new Irish star was awarded to Dede at the Customs House, in Baltimore, in West, Cork where Ahmet Dede, along with co-proprietor Maria Archer, had to delay the planned opening launch of their new restaurant last March, instead, operating as a takeaway and deli food shop throughout the first lockdown until re-opening at the beginning of July last summer.
