Anthony Bourdain Sums Up the Problem with Irish Cuisine

Damien linked to a wonderful interview with one of my favourite chefs, Anthony Bourdain, in his fluffy links this morning. The full interview is here for those of you who are interested.

One particular quote stood out to me immensely:

"In the last few years, for the first time in American history, chefs are being allowed to serve their customers and get them to eat what they themselves believe to be the good stuff. We're not cooking down to them."

Although in reference to American cuisine, I think it can aptly be applied to the culinary crisis here in Ireland. Sure in Dublin, Cork and Limerick you can go out and have a wonderful fresh and unique meal, but that is not the general standard. I for one am completely sick of being "cooked down to." I am sick of the same old standards on every menu, even if it is done well. Speaking of the culinary days of yore, Bourdain says

"When we put together menus, we had to have a sirloin steak, we had to have a pasta, we had to have a salmon. By the time you filled up all the slots of things you had to have, you had very few slots left on the menu."

This is so true of Irish restaurants as well. Have you not seen that on 90% of menus in this country? Lorraine frequently mentions her frustration for not being able to stay true to Italian cuisine in La Cucina, due to customer demand. This is so unbelievably sad.

Bourdain attributes the positive changes in America's restaurants to the celebrity chef culture - something we don't really have. We have Rachel Allen - who I feel has absolutely no passion about what she cooks - and we have Richard Corrigan, another wet fish and that's about it. We have the UK chefs, but many of the things they cook with from hard-to-find vegetables to alternative cuts of meat are simply not available in Ireland.

I was pleasantly surprised to find venison in my local Dunnes Store a few weeks ago. It was brought in early December and has since met it's demise. Why? Nobody knows what to do with it! We have wonderful free range venison available to us and no one buys it. This is a tragedy. We need someone with passion on television, on the radios, on the internet to teach us to get over the cremated steak, wedges, sweet chili sauce and garlic mushrooms and show us how to make the most of what we have.

Too often newspapers and radio stations bring on people who just want to brow beat us with the evils of not buying organic or processed food, but until people know how to make the most with what they have, this is a waste of everyone's time. Apart from the above chefs the only real food type show we have is The Restaurant, which is just another way to flout "celebrities." Bring on the real people say I!

We need someone like Nigella. Someone passionate who can show Ireland that anyone can cook, despite time constraint and lack of confidence. Not a pompous food writer or chef, but a down to earth real person who is passionate about real food, fresh local ingredients and proper cooking. This is what the average person relates too.

Ireland has got to get out of this rut, we just can't keep applying liquid latex on our culinary problems. I am not delusional, I don't expect every restaurant to strive to Chapter One heights, but at least let chefs do what they are supposed to do - cook real food - using the skills they worked so hard to acquire and perfect. We are surrounded by ocean and have access to incredible fresh seafood, yet the required overcooked salmon or shriveled prawn cocktail seems to be the residing seafood on a menu. We have wonderful local beef, lamb and free- range poultry available to us and we need to make use of that in it's best form, that is stop overcooking it and serving it with store bought sauces. Our climate makes local vegetables a year round treat and with more and more organic smallholdings springing up, things are looking up. It's about time our restaurants started utilizing what's around them and we started demanding the ones that do.

Lecture over. More recipes later today! ;-)