Restaurant review: A love letter to the Quay Co-op after 40 years of great food
My erstwhile ‘career’ as a chef in professional kitchens began at 15, in a fast-food restaurant in Cork city. I learned nothing of food and its cooking as all ingredients arrived frozen and service was automated to a point 90˚ north of idiot-proof.
I did, however, succumb to the adrenalin buzz of service and though I formally trained for an entirely different profession, cooking in a various ‘proper’ restaurants, mostly in London, became my fallback employment when times were lean over the next decade or so—and the 80s were largely fat-free for this particular soldier. I returned from London in 1989 bringing with me a global recession to kickstart the 90s. Pretty soon, I was cheffing once more—in the Quay Co-op.
