Star chef makes a return

CRABS from Kilmore Quay, razor clams from west Cork, lobsters from Louth and fresh fish from Donegal...

Busy and bursting with energy, restaurateur Richard Corrigan herded his staff around yesterday as employees raced against the clock to open his latest culinary venture.

Whizzing around his newly-purchased Georgian building on St Stephen’s Green, the Meath-born chef pledged that home grown produce would be at the heart of his menu and to prove it he rattled off the names of Irish food suppliers with the gusto of a football manager lining up his team.

“It’s great to be back in Dublin,” he quipped.

Surrounded by paint buckets and unpacked upholstery, the Michelin Star chef was unphased by the fact his eaterie would open its doors in less than 24 hours.

Bentley’s Oyster Bar & Grill will replace Browne’s on the Green and hopes to tempt diners with its selection of seafood, including oysters, fillets of sole and wild sea bass. Its restaurant seats 70 while upstairs, guests can have anything from tea or champagne to dishes of herring and smoked eel while enjoying views over the green.

Dramatic and upfront, Corrigan has come home to set the record straight on Irish food. Buy local is his message. And Bentley’s menu testifies to that.

“I hate large f**king supermarket chains ripping the punter off. But it’s not that Irish people are naïve shoppers.

“People are busy and go for convenience, like the supermarket that is open all night. If you don’t support your local butcher, grocer or local shop, every Irish village will cease in the next 25 years,” he added.

It is costing €1.3 million to do up the building, which will also offer guests a private dining room for 60 people and 10 bedrooms.

Competition will be tough though with the likes of Peploes, Unicorn and Shanahan’s nearby all touting for hungry guests.

But Corrigan isn’t interested in the golden circle.

“We do hospitality very well. We do value for money really, really well.”

And it’s not celebrities he’s after.

“It’s anyone over 18 who can drink a glass of wine and the happy bon viveur with one leg in a coffin who still wants half a dozen oysters and a glass of wine. I don’t discriminate.”

“I don’t really do celebrity, I do hospitality. I’m a guy from a thatched cottage in the middle of a bog, how the f**k can I do celebrity?”

“Just because you came in by private f**king helicopter, it doesn’t mean you’re going to get the best seat in the house with me, that’s for sure.”

But the well-known do flock from far and wide for his tastes. Last week, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown ate dinner at Lindsay House, his London restaurant, as did former US vice-president Al Gore.

Bentley’s on St Stephen’s Green serves from 7am until 11pm and opens its doors with a charity dinner in aid of Our Lady’s Hospice Harold’s Cross this evening.