Oral History Society Culinary voices: perspectives from Dublin restaurants Author(s): Máirtín Mac Con Iomaire Source: Oral History, Vol. 39, No. 1, DISCRIMINATION (SPRING 2011), pp. 77-90 Published by: Oral History Society Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25802217 . Accessed: 09/10/2014 13:50 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Oral History Society is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Oral History. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 210.212.93.44 on Thu, 9 Oct 2014 13:50:04 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Spring2010 ORAL HISTORY 77 Culinary voices: perspectives from Dublin restaurants byMairtin Mac Con lomaire Abstract: Despite growing interest inculinary history and gastronomy in the last three decades, the use of oral historywithin the culinaryfield remains inan embryonic stage. By discussing the strengthof oral history,particularly when triangulatedwith other sources, and surveyingsome food related projects, the article focuses on the power of oral historyto capture the lifeexperiences of chefs, waiters, restaurateurs and diners. The article calls on curators of culinary librariesto build oral historyarchives which can be accessed electronically. Key words: culinaryhistory, gastronomy, chefs, haute cuisine, Dublin, food sector There has been a growing interest in culinary population, the cooks who are employed to history and gastronomy in the last three make their food, and the ingredients and decades.1 Much of the work of culinary histori methods of preparation used'.3 French haute ans is centred on written sources, ranging from cuisine became the model and the basis for an cookbooks, diaries, or menus; and the voices internationally renowned cuisine that is more and lifeexperiences of most foodworkers (both highlyvalued, both culturallyand socially,than domestic and professional) are hidden, apart other regional or national cuisines.4 Evidence from the minority who wrote cookbooks or existsof a growing trendstarting in 1953with memoirs. This article discusses the use of oral a festivalcalled 'AnTostaY forthe promotion of historyas a tool to unlock the experiences of quality Irish food inDublin restaurants and food workers and draws particularly on my most of today's top Dublin restaurants serve experiencesusing oral historyin researchingthe what is called 'modernIrish food'. Despite this, historyof Frenchhaute cuisine inDublin restau Trench restaurants' remain themost expensive rantsbetween 1900 and 2000 fora PhD at the restaurants in practically every country, reflect Dublin Instituteof Technology.2 French cookery ing theperceived superiorityof French cuisine. is considered bymost Western societies to be The international dominance of haute cuisine themost refinedmethod of food preparation. can be most clearly seen by the fact that the This reputationis based mainly on haute cuisine menu, the language of cooking, kitchen organi a are (sometimes known as grande cuisine), style of sation, and the training of cooks all largely cooking offered by high-class restaurants and based on French models.5 generally regarded as the national cuisine of The term 'foodservice' refers to the broad France. Haute cuisines, according to Amy cateringindustry and incorporatesboth 'frontof Trubek, 'have some relationshipwith an elite house' (managers and waiters) and kitchen staff This content downloaded from 210.212.93.44 on Thu, 9 Oct 2014 13:50:04 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 78 ORAL HISTORY Spring2011 Pierre Holland and his brigaded958. (chefsand porters).This paper calls on culinary Russell Hotel Restaurant read: 'words fail us in researchers to use oral history to research a wide describing the brilliance of the cuisine at this range of foodservice businesses from fish and elegant and luxurious restaurant which must chip shops, pizzerias, contract catering, to five rank amongst the best in theworld'.8 The Miche star hotels and Michelin-starred restaurants. My linGuide toGreat Britain and Irelandwas first research, however, was based on the influence of published in 1974, awarding one star toThe French haute cuisine and this therefore domi Russell Hotel which also closed in 1974.Haute nates most of the examples I present. cuisine moved from the restaurants of Dublin to the countryhouse hotels during the 1970s and Dublin and haute cuisine 1980s. The next Michelin star was not awarded The words Dublin or Irelanddo not immediately inDublin until 1989, to anotherFrench chef / come tomind when haute cuisine ismentioned. restaurateur, Patrick Guilbaud. By 2001 there However, two leading French chefs, the broth were two Dublin restaurants with two Michelin ers Francois and Michel Jammet, opened a stars each: Restaurant Patrick Guilbaud, and restaurantin Dublin in 1901which, up until its Thornton's, run by an Irish chef Kevin Thorn closure in 1967, remained one of the best restau ton. rants in the world serving haute cuisine.6 During the twentieth century haute cuisine was served Background to the study in many Dublin hotels, clubs and restaurants My initial interest in the history of Dublin came and under similar influences as Paris, restaurants was sparked when Iwas training to London and other European cities, moving from become a chef in theDublin Instituteof Tech the Escoffier orthodoxy to the influence of nology in the early 1990s. One of my lecturers, nouvelle cuisine. In 1949, another French chef, P JDunne, was in his seventies and had been Pierre Rolland, arrived inDublin as chef de larder chef in the famous Restaurant Jammet in cuisine of The Russell Hotel and the hotel's Dublin for many years before commencing his restaurant under his leadership also became teaching career. Stories of his experiences, world renowned for haute cuisine.7Dublin particularly during the years of the Second restaurants serving haute cuisine enjoyed a World War, fascinated me. He showed me and 'goldenage' in the twodecades thatfollowed the my fellow studentshow he improvisedin times Second World War. The kitchens and dining of fishshortages by using a monkfish tail (not a rooms of The Russell and Royal Hibernian popular fish in the 1940s and 1950s) to fashion Hotels became nurseries for young Irish chefs scampi, collops of lobster, and scallops for an and waiters who gradually replaced the conti appreciativedining public.When I returnedto nental head chefs and waiters and became the theDublin Instituteof Technology in the late culinary leaders in the 1970s.When theEgon 1990s as a part-time teacher, P JDunne had died Ronay Guide covered Ireland for the firsttime and his stories were left unrecorded. During this - in 1963, The Russell was awarded three stars time I listenedwith great interestto the stories thehighest possible accolade. Itwas described of two retired chefs, Bill Ryan and Liam as 'one of the best restaurants in Europe' in the Kavanagh, then working as part-time teachers. 1964 guide and by 1965, the entry forThe Both chefs had spent years travelling around the This content downloaded from 210.212.93.44 on Thu, 9 Oct 2014 13:50:04 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Spring2011 ORAL HISTORY 79 Bill and Liam Ryan world cooking on various Cunard ocean liners at the the Kavanagh in the early 1950s. Kavanagh had also worked Savoy Grill, London, inNew York City fora number of years. I felt 1948. Courtesy of that these life stories were worth I Liam Kavanagh. preserving. had been reading Kevin C Kearns' books on Dublin at the time,9which promptedme to use theoral historyapproach he had employed,with the inhabitants of Dublin tenements and customersof Dublin public houses, tocollect the life stories of Dublin chefs, waiters and restau rateurs. When I enrolled on a masters degree in 2003, there was a certain reticence among the academics about the use of oral history alone and a research question was agreed: to investi gate the influenceof Frenchhaute cuisineon the emergenceand developmentof public dining in Dublin restaurants 1900-2000 using oral history. Within a year I had transferredto thePhD regis ter and graduated in 2009. The academic fieldsof food studiesand culi nary history span many academic disciplines.10 Therefore, an interdisciplinaryapproach to the identification and analyses of research material the Southern Foodways Alliance 'GulfCoast was in the The adopted above study. main Foodways Renaissance Project: An Oral History primary research methodology employed, Initiative'in theUniversity of Mississippi,12 and however, was in-depth life history interviews theDelta Food Oral Histories in theDelta State with chefs, waiters, restaurateurs and discerning University, which seem to have grown from the diners who had lived experiences of Dublin potential loss of bothNew Orleans and theGulf restaurants during the twentieth century. One of Coast's culinary heritage following Hurricane the reasons forusing oral historyin thisproject Katrina in 2005. was the lack of written material available, but In the UK, the British Library houses a thiswas compensatedby thefund of outstanding number