The new Rebel wave: five chefs making their mark on Cork's food scene

There's a new moment happening in Leeside restaurants - and a world of taste is in the hands of a new generation of chefs

Sat, 19 Mar, 2022 - 06:00

Joe McNamee

Just five years ago, culinary Cork appeared to be drifting in the doldrums, a UCC food conference posing the question, ‘Is Cork Still the Food Capital of Ireland?’

On the Examiner's pages, I assembled a panel of esteemed authorities on Irish food and all were immediately in agreement that Cork, as a historical provisioning centre, agricultural powerhouse and birthplace of the modern Irish speciality food producer movement, was still in rude health.

But when it came to hospitality, the case appeared flimsier. Modern Irish hospitality began in Cork when Myrtle Allen opened Ballymaloe House in 1963. Ireland’s first Michelin Star went to Arbutus Lodge, in St Luke’s, in Cork city, in 1974, and the following year it was one of only three-starred restaurants in Ireland, along with Ballymaloe House and Ballylickey House, in West Cork. The near-simultaneous arrival of Denis Cotter’s Cafe Paradiso and Seamus O’Connell’s Ivory Tower, in Cork city, in the early 90s, were revolutionary in their trailblazing impact on Irish hospitality.

Yet by 2017, it had been 16 years since West Cork’s Shiro, in Ahakista, held its last star. It was still possible to pass two or three days eating extremely well in Cork but the local scene, for the most part, appeared tired and conservative, especially in the city, where the Celtic Tiger’s crash had skewed attitudes toward risk-averse blandness.

Chefs (from left) Brian Murray, Dan Guerin, Darren Kennedy, Mark Ahern and Aishling Moore at On the Pig's Back, English Market, Cork. Pic: Denis Minihane.

Meanwhile, the national debate centred around which of Galway or Kilkenny now deserved the ‘food capital’ title, even as Dublin, weight of ‘native’ and tourist numbers on its side, inexorably grew its own sector to the point where it now unquestionably offers the widest variety of top restaurants in Ireland.

But Cork wasn’t quite done, exploding back to life the following year. In 2018, three Cork restaurants received their first Michelin stars. It was precisely what the doctor ordered and the sea change has been palpable since, a new vibrancy apparent throughout the county.

What’s more, while the Michelin-starred trio of Rob Krawczyk (Chestnut), Ahmet Dede (Customs House) and Takashi Miyazaki (Ichigo Ichie) lead the charge, there is a posse of younger Cork chefs arriving in their wake, using the ever superb produce of the county to serve up with supreme confidence delicious, innovative cooking.

Even the existential challenges of the pandemic and the promise of more tough times ahead in the immediate future can’t blunt their enthusiasm or verve. Here we present five of the very best of the New Rebel Wave of Cork chefs, proud Corkonians all.

Brian Murray: The Glass Curtain, Cork

Late one evening in September 2019, after the closing of Midleton’s fEast food festival, in East Cork, I was approached in the pub by a young man who made a very good case for himself, sharing plans for his soon-to-be-opened new Cork city restaurant.

Sure enough, The Glass Curtain opened two months later, early tidings, very promising, but, thanks to the pandemic, it would be another two years before I’d finally pull up a pew.

Up to that point, Midleton man Brian Murray passed the bulk of his culinary career outside Ireland, including two years in Dubai under Michelin three-starred superstar Yannick Alléno, the French Gordon Ramsey.

After that, he cheffed on superyachts for wealthy owners, clocking up stages in top restaurants around the globe, all the while building a war chest to open his own restaurant back home in Cork.

That two-year wait was more than worth it: in a delightful and elegantly stylish space, Murray serves up some quite superb food that is constantly evolving and improving. Sourcing superb local produce, which he is fond of subjecting to naked flame and smoke, flavours are big, bold yet well balanced and tempered with delicate textures and an ever-growing finesse that marks out his Michelin potential in the future.

“While we don’t have any signature dishes, per se,” says Murray, “our ‘Bacon and Cabbage’ ticks a lot of the boxes. Grilled over coals and then finished briefly in the oven to soften, we serve cabbage with pork belly that has been brined, cooked with miso and mirin overnight and then roasted to order, a black garlic aioli and a whey sauce, made from whey left over from our ricotta. It highlights our passion for cooking with fire, the hints of Japanese and Spanish influences. It is one of the favourite courses on our tasting menu.

“Cork has always been home to me — even when I was travelling for years there was never any doubt that I would be coming back here to open my restaurant. I guess it’s just a sense of place; walking home through familiar surroundings after a 12-hour day is somehow comforting. On a practical level I wouldn’t have been able to do this without the massive support of friends and family. There’s a great community of hospitality around the city too, it’s small enough that we all know each other and support each other and there’s that particular feeling that only Cork people understand, there’s no place else quite like it.”

Aishling Moore: Goldie, Cork

Aishling Moore’s rise as a chef has been rapid and thoroughly deserved, her Goldie seafood restaurant, in Cork city, picking up the Best Casual Dining Restaurant in Munster award at last year’s prestigious Food & Wine Magazine awards.

Moore’s heart has been set on a place in professional kitchens ever since she was a 16-year-old Jamie Oliver fan trying out her culinary experimentation on her mother and brother, in their suburban home in Douglas, in Cork city. When she began her four years of full time culinary arts studies in CIT, she also managed to work full time as a chef, spending three years in Fenn’s Quay.

A big fan of Elbow Lane Smokehouse & Microbrewery, she finally secured a position there, becoming head chef after a year. Then the Market Lane group (owners of Elbow Lane) approached her about becoming co-owner of a new casual dining seafood restaurant, Goldie.

“I took a day to mull it over,” says Moore. “When you have a stake in a restaurant, it takes a bigger commitment, but to be honest I could have answered in 30 seconds. I was shocked that they even wanted me to do it, I was so young really, just 24 when it opened.”

That opening date was in late autumn 2019 and Goldie was yet another promising newcomer to be hobbled by Covid just as it was getting into its stride. Moore weathered the storm and is now back better than ever. She cooks a delicious and genuinely innovative take on superbly sourced catch of the day — quite literally, whatever comes in off the boat — and sustainably using as much of the fish as is possible, gill to fin to tail cooking and with the head often thrown in as well. Her dishes are sublimely cooked and graced with intriguing epicurean influences, particularly from Spain and Asia, which Moore renders into her own style with originality and restrained flair.

“One of my favourite dishes at the moment,” says Moore, “is smoked sea trout, buckwheat blini, ale mustard, beetroot kraut. The bellies of wild sea trout are hot smoked and flaked and dressed, served on top of a warmed blini. Such a great use of bellies of the trout — with the high fat it takes the smoke so well. We also cure some of the bellies and that’s diced and served on top, for a simple dish, using simple ingredients that is super satisfying.

“Cooking and having a restaurant in Cork city fills me with immense pride and being part of a thriving food scene in the city where you are from is so special to me.”

Darren Kennedy: Sage Midleton, Co Cork

Darren Kennedy grew up in Ballyphehane, in Cork city, by his own admission, unsure of what exactly he wanted to do when he left school. An almost completed plumbing apprenticeship prematurely ended by the Celtic Tiger’s crash strangled that career at birth but its demise didn’t break his heart, knowing it wasn’t for him.

He had begun experimenting in the home kitchen and, encouraged by a chef friend of his sister’s, sought a job in a professional kitchen, snaffling a berth in Liberty Grill, in Cork. Having finally found his passion, he embraced it with a gusto and commitment that marked him out from the start, at one point holding down jobs in

three different Cork restaurants so that he might “always be learning, never missing out on anything, picking up new skills”.

He also studied in CIT and then in Tralee IT, and in 2014 headed off with his partner to London, “for a year, for the experience”. They remained there for six.

During that time, Kennedy’s learning curve rapidly accelerated: Zoilo, a contemporary Argentinian grill restaurant; then on to Michelin-starred Chez Bruce; ending up as head chef for three years at the renowned Brunswick House.

With a baby on the way, he and his partner returned to Cork. to the sanctuary and support of of home and family. He began working in St Francis Provisions, in Kinsale, soon attracting national attention. In October 2021, Kevin Aherne, chef/proprietor of Sage Midleton, announced he was stepping out of his nationally renowned kitchen and Kennedy would be taking over as head chef.

On the plate, Kennedy delivers gorgeous, premium produce with a deceptively casual style that belies effort involved in festooning each dish with bold, punchy flavours, including a marked fondness for ‘heat,’ particularly chillis, for that extra bit of fire in the belly.

“My current favourite dish,” says Kennedy, “is smoked beef rump tartar, rapeseed aioli, Jerusalem artichoke crisps, Shepard’s Store cheese. Growing up I would have been shocked by the idea of raw beef but this dish combines everything I love about cooking: ageing, smoking, deep frying, knife skills, using the very best of local produce, including stunning aged Black Angus/Hereford cross from Frank Murphy Butchers in Midleton. And lots of cheese. It’s a personal take on an old school French favourite.

“Cork people love to eat and there’s a great community of chefs doing their own thing. I’m blown away by the small, local suppliers who push the boundaries for what we thought could be grown and produced in Ireland, and I am very fortunate to have ready access to it.”

Dan Guerin: Cush, Ballycotton, Co Cork

Dan Guerin grew up in Ballycotton, in East Cork, his early years lived on Rossmore Oyster Farm, where his grandfather and father worked as managers for many years. When Guerin was five, the family moved to Ballycotton and his father began fishing. His mother was an excellent home cook, supplementing a steady supply of seafood and game with nature’s bounty ever before ‘foraging’ became a culinary term. By the age of 12, Guerin, gun in hand, was regularly adding fresh game to the family larder.

A post-school job as a kitchen porter in Sage Midleton began as a casual attempt to pick up pocket money; within three months Guerin knew he had found his career, and diligently applied himself to learning his craft.

Behind Guerin’s gently reserved, even shy demeanour, lies a singular determination and focus. It is evident in his decision not to pursue a culinary studies course.

“I worked with students on day release and felt I learned so much more by working every day in the kitchen; they might fillet a fish in class but I’d be filleting hundreds in a week. I know other chefs who got great benefit from college but I don’t regret my choice.”

It was also evident when he decided it was time to further his culinary education. Choosing between two restaurants, he plumped for Campagne, in Kilkenny, over Dublin’s Chapter One. Both Michelin-starred, Guerin chose the lesser-known, reasoning correctly he’d get more experience in a smaller kitchen. It also introduced him to the classical culinary education unavailable in Sage’s 12-mile locavore philosophy, which prohibited access to myriad imported ingredients from beyond these shores, many of them staples of the French canon.

“On my first day, [chef/proprietor] Gareth [Byrne] sat me down and said, ‘now, forget everything you’ve ever learned before you came here!’ I definitely struggled for the first year but I was determined. By the end of my three years there, I was confident working in every single area of the kitchen.”

In 2019, Guerin was offered the role of head chef in a new enterprise in his home village but in an all too familiar story, a promising new arrival foundered on the rocks of the pandemic. Guerin admits it was a real mental challenge, but he made it through. On the other side was his reward: Cush’s just recently announced Michelin Bib Gourmand, a remarkable achievement for such a young restaurant.

Despite the classical influences and a selection of imported specialty products, Guerin’s cuisine is thoroughly wedded to his upbringing and the food served up at the family table. He produces delicious dishes without feeling compelled to blur confidently achieved flavours and textures with an overlay of fanciful fireworks and ego-driven experimentation.

This approach is well expressed in a sublime ‘signature’ dish of warm natural smoked haddock, potato velouté, crispy hens egg.

“It has been on since day one,” says Guerin, “the only change has been the option of adding caviar. It’s pure indulgence food, lovely sustainable natural-smoked haddock done weekly for us by Ballycotton Seafood, rich potato velouté, breadcrumbed soft hens egg on top. It’s a classic example of what we love to do here, nowhere to hide, three elements, executed perfectly on the plate.”

Mark Ahern: Pigalle Kitchen Bar & Restaurant, Cork

With the average age of the other four featured chefs of this New Wave barely reaching 30, Mark Ahern, at 42, is the ‘elder lemon’ but is the ‘youngest’ in ‘kitchen years’, having only begun cooking professionally ten years ago.

Ahern studied food technology in UCC and his first career was in pharmaceuticals — “well paid,” he says, “but I never liked it, very boring!” — and he then went travelling in Asia for eight years, living in Thailand where he met his wife and absorbed his first major culinary influences.

Returning to Ireland, he took a total culinary immersion course in CIT while working in several local restaurants, progressing up the ladder, allied to stages abroad in San Sebastian, Biarritz and Bayonne, eventually becoming head chef at the late lamented House Cafe at the Cork Opera House.

Three years ago, he became head chef at Pigalle Kitchen Restaurant & Bar, part of the Tom Barry’s ‘mini-empire’, on Barrack Street, in Cork, a petite and innately stylish venue, where Ahern turns out simple, unaffected yet quite delicious dishes featuring superbly sourced local produce which he delivers as understated yet sublimely flavoursome dishes, including immaculately incorporated Thai accents.

“My signature dish would be Tom Kha Broth, with Handmade Buckwheat Noodles, Monk Cheek, Baby Irish Squid, Ballyhoura Oyster Mushrooms and whatever fish happens to be best on the day.

“It combines two of my favourite things: Thai Curry and noodles. Thai curry is by nature funky, sweet, sour, spicy and salty and I make my own paste and good quality fish stock.

“The noodles take me two hours and are a heartbreaker, but the chewy result makes it worth the time spent.

“We are very lucky in Cork to have access to such incredible produce. I talk to chefs in Dublin all the time and they can’t get stuff as good as us or have to work very hard to get even close.

“Apart from the produce, the reason I love cooking in Cork is that it is a port city so very naturally over the centuries we’ve had influences from sea and land, from other cultures, and imported foodstuffs and beverages and that remains true to this day.

“I can eat Nepalese, Lebanese or Palestinian food all within a kilometer and can source food from all over the world — Cork is like a ‘world village’ and, plus, I think Cork people, for the most part, are sound!”

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