All you need is good food

CARMEL SOMERS, owner of the iconic Good Things café in Durrus developed her love and appreciation of good food in her childhood “while surrounded by lavish roast dinners, meticulous baking and too much butter”.

In her late teens she struggled to decide which direction to follow so on a friend’s suggestion, she decided to flex her wings and head to Paris, the source of so many gastronomic delights. There she met and trained with John Desmond who now owns the Island Cottage Restaurant on Heir Island off Baltimore in west Cork. She soaked up all that Paris had to offer; bistros, brasseries, food markets and worked her socks off at Lous Landes.

Stints in several of Britain’s top kitchens followed; Whites, Markwich’s, Bibendum and Sally Clarke’s lovely restaurant in Kensington Street in London. In 2001, Carmel decided it was time for a change so she packed up her possessions and moved to Ireland with her young daughters. Soon the Good Things Café, whose name is taken from Jane Grigson’s beautifully written classic cook book Good Things, was established.