American business psychologist Warren G. Bennis, described by Forbes magazine as ‘the king of leadership gurus’ is on record for saying “People who cannot invent and reinvent themselves must be content with borrowed postures, secondhand ideas, fitting in instead of standing out.” An adage that should be learned and committed to heart by restaurateurs, too ...
My first encounter with Chinese food was in Manchester way back in the last century. I was doing evening classes, I forget the subject. During a break-time conversation it emerged that Johnson, one of the guys in the class, was the proprietor of a Chinese restaurant. Furthermore, he kindly issued an open invitation to a ...
The year 1947 became a culinary landmark when the first Betty Crocker cake mix hit America’s shelves. This novelty empowered the housewife to create a fresh, ‘home-made’ (as in ‘made at home’) cake with the absolute minimum of time and effort. The concept initially backfired because home cooks felt compelled to return to the ...
Here I am again, back on the Cote de Ranelagh for the third time in six weeks. I make no apologies, it’s where much of the new restaurant activity has occurred during the last twelvemonth. This time Bangles and I were at the Kinara Kitchen, sister ship to the admirable Kinara in Clontarf where I’ve ...
This week has been Chinese all the way, kicking off with a trip to M&L, a down-home unpretentious restaurant catering primarily for Dublin’s Chinese inhabitants, who now number close on 60,000. Latterly, the tastiness of the food and the reasonable prices, coupled with portions bordering on the humongous, have attracted an Occidental clientele. A couple ...
In my days as editor and restaurant reviewer for Food & Wine Magazine I considered it a point of honour to allow a restaurant to ‘bed down’ before putting them to the test. Alas, the demands of newspaper readers for access to the latest and greatest does not permit this and I found, when I ...
Restaurant ReviewsFado, fado, there stood, hidden amid the barrows, butchers and barbers of Moore Street, a self-styled Russian ‘delicatessen’. The inverted commas are mine for the shop stocked only three products, at least one inedible. Foodies intent on availing themselves of the opportunity to acquaint themselves with the cuisine of the USSR could purchase tins of ...
Restaurant ReviewsA seasoned traveller on the road from Dublin to Athlone and back, Leslie has found his lunch stop of choice and longs to go back for dinner. Having seen the menu, I think I’ll join him – Ernie The Fatted Calf Feargal and Fiona O’Donnell took over Farrell’s pub in Glasson in April of ...
Restaurant ReviewsI’ve never seen the charm of sushi. Oh, I’ve eaten plenty; it turns up all over the place, at parties, at corporate hospitality functions, even at weddings and funerals these days. But pleasure, two thirds of the point of eating (the other third is staying alive), has been missing from the juxtaposition of yours truly ...
Restaurant ReviewsI underwent a knee operation a fortnight ago. Last week, at a party at The China Sichuan to celebrate the Chinese New Year, I was made to realise just how hard it is to manage two crutches, a glass of wine and a morsel of dim sum. My heart goes out to those for ...
Restaurant Reviews