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A new challenge for Derry Clarke Mairead Robinson meets Ireland’s best- known chef as he plans a new restaurant in Temple Bar, Dublin As part of the Senior Times Food & Wine Podcast Series, I recently chatted to celebrity chef Derry Clarke about his exceptionally successful culinary career over the past thirty years in Dublin. He has been a reality television judge alongside names like Bibi Baskin and Sammy Leslie on RTE 1 reality series Failte Towers, and he has also appeared on other programmes such as The Restaurant, The Afternoon Show and The Panel. Of course he is best known to many of us for his Michelin Starred L’Ecrivian restaurant in Dublin which was hugely popular for thirty one years until it closed its doors in 2020. I asked him how it all began, and if he had always wanted to be a chef when he was growing up. Indeed his family were involved in the food business and his own professional career began at the age of sixteen. He started his career in 1972 with Peter Barry who is best known for The Man Friday restaurant in Kinsale. While Kinsale has often been hailed as the ‘Gourmet Capital of Ireland’ it is fair to say that much has changed over the past forty years. Restaurants have come and gone, but the stunning location of The Man Friday overlooking the harbour and consistently providing fresh local ingredients in contemporary dishes, has been a constant favourite for locals and visitors alike. This Cork town of Kinsale has always been close to Derry’s heart, and over the decades when he is not cooking, he loves to go out in his boat with his family and sailing from Kinsale, taking a simple picnic with them, is something he has been enjoying for many years. When he returned to Dublin from his time at The Man Friday in 1977, he began working in Le Coq Hardi, which was one of the top restaurants in the capital at the time. Working under the renowned John Howard, that is where he cut his ‘fine dining’ teeth and he remained there for four years until he moved on to Le Bon Appetit for the following eight years. And so in 1989 he opened his own restaurant, L’Ecrivian and with his wife Sallyanne at his side, he soon gained Michelin awards, and indeed held a prestigious Michelin Star from 2003 until he closed the restaurant in 58 Senior Times l March - April 2022 l www.seniortimes.ie
2020. It was here that he gained not just national but indeed international recognition, having been inducted into Food & Wine Magazine’s ‘Hall of Fame’ and been granted a five-star review by The New York Times. The review described his restaurant as ‘superb’ and ‘a good spot to linger’ whilst in Dublin. Of course having such a prestigious award as a Michelin Star can very much be a double-edged sword, and visitors’ expectations are always going to be very high when they see that plaque on the wall. Indeed it can also be extremely exhausting to keep up the very high standard for every meal, every sitting, year after year. Derry confirmed that for some years they were doing more covers every day than any other Michelin restaurant in Europe. I do remember eating there once myself, many years ago, and indeed it was a memorable experience. I don’t know of any other chef, Irish or international, who has consistently cooked in his own restaurant and held a Michelin Star for such a long period of time. Fine dining is hard work, no doubt about it. It is typically more sophisticated and unique than one would find in the average restaurant. We are talking about an upscale meal experience often consisting of several courses. Personally I love to enjoy a ‘tasting menu’ – handing choices over to the chef and enjoying plate after plate of delicious little creations that I would never have put together myself, or even imagined could go so well together. With each course, presented with a flourish by the waiting staff, there will be an accompanying wine to compliment the dish. Of course L’Ecrivian offered tasting menus for years which consisted of stunning plates, for example:- foie gras, Flaggy Shore oyster, roast turbot, sika deer, lime leaf ice cream, cheesecake. Each course was served with four or five of its own accompanying little taste sensations. All of that food was then followed by tea/coffee and petits fours. And indeed accompanying wines. This is an experience that usually takes hours to savour. While I delight in such great foodie experiences, Derry admits that he has moved away from fine dining himself these days. When he and
