Feasting on 30 years of Ireland's only two-star Michelin restaurant

A new book celebrates the history of Restaurant Patrick Guilbaud, which opened in 1981 to outrage over the small portions

THE PORTIONS were tiny, there was no salt and pepper on the table and, in a sacrilegious move for 1981 Ireland, the humble potato did not feature in every dish on the menu.

When Restaurant Patrick Guilbaud first opened in Dublin its trademark nouvelle cuisine took a while to catch on.

Last night at the launch of a book marking 30 years of the restaurant, about 500 of Guilbaud’s loyal customers gathered to toast Ireland’s only two-star Michelin restaurant.

It was the small portions that caused the biggest outrage, Guilbaud said yesterday in a French accent that has not got any milder despite his 30 years in the capital.

“In the early days I had a very nice, very witty customer who once after he had finished his meal I asked if he wanted a drink and he said, ‘I never drink on an empty stomach’.”

In the 1980s the restaurant, then located off Baggot Street, was one of only a handful of fine-dining spots in the capital.

Guilbaud recalled how a visit to the vegetable market at Smithfield wouldn’t yield more than cabbages, parsnips, potatoes and, “if you were lucky”, a few courgettes. “We were one of the first to ask for something like shallots. The vegetable men did not know what they were but they were smart people and gradually this changed,” he said.

He used to go to Howth to get fish straight off the boats and it was only when the fishermen realised Guilbaud would pay for them that they stopped throwing monkfish back into the sea.

Launching the book last night, businessman and co-owner Lochlann Quinn credited the teamwork between Guilbaud, executive chef Guillaume Lebrun and maître d’ Stephane Robin with the success and longevity of the restaurant, which since 1997 has been located beside the Merrion Hotel.

“He [Guilbaud] educated us about how to eat and we educated him about how to have fun when you go out to eat,” said Quinn, recalling a “semi-hysterical” call from Guilbaud when the restaurant earned its first Michelin star in 1988. The second followed in 1996.

The book is packed with testimonies from customers, lavish photos by celebrity photographer Barry McCall and 40 recipes so readers can recreate that two-star Michelin effect at home. “It is possible but you just have to follow the recipe closely,” Guilbaud claimed.

While the restaurant was full almost every night during boom times, business had slowed down, he said, but the restaurant remained profitable.

The prices are more competitive too: “We have a lunch for €35, which makes us the cheapest two-star Michelin restaurant in the world.”

The list of visiting celebrities who have stopped to eat in the restaurant is impressive and includes the late actor Gregory Peck, Bill Clinton and the Rolling Stones. Another regular is Bono, who provided the foreword to the book, which is written by Susan Ryan.

Among those gathered at the champagne-fuelled event last night were Guilbaud’s wife Sally, his son Charles, his first grandson Freddie, co-owner Martin Naughton, Shane Ross, Noelle Campbell-Sharpe, Masterchef Ireland winner Mary Carney, Eamon Dunphy and chefs including Kevin Thornton from Thornton’s and Ross Lewis from Chapter One.

The coffee-table book Restaurant Patrick Guilbaud. The First 30 Yearscosts €50 and all proceeds go to the Irish Hospice Foundation. It is available from shops including Avoca, Brown Thomas, House of Fraser and Dubray Books, as well as the restaurant itself. Guilbaud will be signing copies at House of Fraser in Dundrum Town Centre from 2pm to 4pm on Saturday.