Culture That Made Me: Macroom chef Denis Cotter on Bourdain, Flann O'Brien, and Corcadorca 

The owner of Café Paradiso also includes Talking Heads, Waiting for Godot, and Cork City FC among his selections 

Denis Cotter, owner and executive chef of Paradiso in Cork. Picture: David Creedon

Denis Cotter, 64, grew up in Macroom, Co Cork. He gave up a career in banking to open Café Paradiso in Cork City in 1993. 

As a vegetarian restaurant in pre-Celtic Tiger Ireland, it was a curiosity, but it prospered.