fine dining
“The Conrad was the first kitchen that I knew of that
made all their own breads and croissants. They were so perfect that even Helen Lucy Burke thought they’d been bought in,” he said. O’Reilly worked in The Conrad for two years and then
he moved to The Westbury, where he stayed for more than four years. It was when he was working here under head chef Paddy Burke that his eyes were opened to what gastronomy could be. The Westbury organised International Weeks, when top chefs from the world's great hotels came to cook. One of these was Yannick Allenno, then the chef from
Paris’s Maurice Hotel and now a three-star Michelin chef. Yannick asked O’Reilly to come to Paris and work with him, and it was there that he learned themost about food. “It opened my eyes as to how it should be treated, how to work with flavours and mostly what dedication and loyalty you need to cook at that level,” he said.
Stepping stone By the time O’Reilly left TheWestbury he had been pro- moted to being in charge of starters, mains and fish, which became the stepping stone for the nextmove, when he was asked to become head chef for the Kidney Group of hotels. As a young man of just 24, this was a big leap. Up to this moment he had been learning about the skills of cooking, now he had to learn about management, costs and pricing. It was his first taste of the business end of catering, and thankfully he grasped it well. It says a lot about his commercial abilities that apart
from his very first loan of IR£10,000, which he used to set up his first restaurant One Pico in the Camden Hall Hotel, he has never operated on bank loans. Whatever moves he has made, he has done with his own money. This may well be one of the reasons that he’s still in business while others are floundering. Since his first One Pico, O’Reilly has always done two
things – provided good food and provided value. This has stood himin good stead during this current recession.His One Pico was one of the very first restaurants to really go for a value lunch menu. It happened like this. “I’ve always taken my chefs away a few times a year to
see what's happening in other countries. On a visit to London we ate in The Glasshouse, a restaurant with two Michelin stars, where lunch was £25.We were charging
‘On a visit to London we ate in The Glasshouse, a restaurant with two Michelin stars, where lunch was £25. We were charging €35. I knew we had to change’
€35. I knew we had to change, so that’s when we came up with our €20 three-course lunch menu. We went from doing maybe 10 people for lunch to being full every day.” At the time there was talk that he was devaluing the
brand, but O’Reilly was right – value was exactly what the Irish consumer wanted. And while One Pico moved from Camden Street to
Molesworth Lane in 2001, he was still looking for oppor- tunities. Briefly he had Pacific, a large restaurant in Temple Bar that was critically acclaimed, but after a year he sold it and bought what is now Bleu BistroModerne in Dawson Street. It hasn’t stopped there. Last year he revamped One Pico completely and bought a new prem- ises in Stepaside from a liquidator’s sale. Stepaside is now open as The Box Tree, a comfortable
restaurant and bar serving high-quality food. This has to be one of the very few instances of restaurants expanding in a year when the vastmajority of themare retrenching. It says a lot for O’Reilly’s financial strategy. There’s no doubt that food is what drives Eamonn O’Reilly; it’s clearly in the blood. When I asked him what he likes to do when he’s not working, he told me: “I like to go out to eat with my wife and family”. For some that might be considered a busman’s holiday, but for O’Reilly it’s just doing what comes naturally – looking for good food.
76 Irish Director Spring 2011
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