Patience, Consistency and Sacrifice: What Clinching a Michelin Star Really Requires
Ireland has a new trio of one-starred restaurants (with that elusive third star still out of reach) while Michelin's ceremony noticeably blanked the Irish capital this year....
“I have lost friendships because of this restaurant and because I wanted to get that star,” Danny Africano, Chef Patron of LIGNUM in Loughrea, told me last week when writing about Ireland’s trio of new one Michelin-starred restaurants for the Sunday Times Ireland. It was almost like the fine dining circle of the hospitality industry in Ireland collectively exhaled from holding their breath for so long when LIGNUM was finally indoctrinated to one star level at the Michelin Guide’s annual ceremony held in Glasgow’s Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum last week.
Here is a vastly expanded piece with lots more quotes I couldn’t fit into that article from my chats with Ireland’s newest starred chefs…
It has felt as though for several years on the trot Galway’s LIGNUM has been pointedly overlooked by the inspectors. We ourselves have been shouting about its star potential for years, aghast at it being continuously overlooked, as quoted below in the concluding paragraph of our review of the restaurant right here on Substack from a time before we became professional restaurant critics:
“When we received the email maybe two weeks ago, it was extremely emotional,” Africano says, “Molly (his wife, who manages the restaurant) and I were just in pieces crying”. The couple kept the long-awaited news from their team intentionally, explaining “we had organised a staff party in Naples at my parents’ house so purposefully held back until the first night then we told them; it was such a special feeling to have everybody there and to announce it in Italy with my parents as well, amazing”.
Africano has had his sights set on Michelin validation for most of his life and makes no secret it was the goal when he opened LIGNUM in Bullaun in 2019 as a 28 year-old. “I worked in a Michelin-starred restaurant when I was 14, so since then it has always been a dream and a goal but after years of not receiving it, you start to question it and yourself,” he says, adding “it really did eat us up inside [not getting it]”.
This past year Danny and Molly took a step back from star-chasing, instead prioritising their relationship, getting married and talking about expanding their family while huddling their team together to “focus on serving really good food, improving service and rather than trying to force it instead trying to enjoy it”. The irony being once they stopped chasing it it arrived, “I guess that really worked,” he says in a half-chuckle.
He is quick to clarify that “Michelin isn’t supposed to be easy, you don’t just receive it, you really need to work for it and earn it,” adding that, with hindsight, the fact the team had to wait patiently and work harder every year to get the star meant the eventual awarding is so much sweeter.
We speak as he touches down from Glasgow, exhausted and ready for bed, but a surprise homecoming party has been planned in the restaurant for Africano’s team. “Tonight among those coming to celebrate this win are those same people who I used to be so close with and whose friendships I lost in the pursuit of this star,” he shares, adding “like missing weddings and special occasions and a social life, having them coming here to celebrate this win with us is so amazing to have that support and understanding”.
Adam Nevin returned from the UK to his native Maynooth 18 months ago having spent time at both Tom Kerridge’s two Michelin-starred pub The Hand and Flowers in Marlow and The Grill at The Dorchester in London’s Mayfair. He joined the Fairmont-managed Carton House to lead its fine dining restaurant The Morrison Room as head chef and has now bagged a Michelin star for the hometown where his career began 15 years ago cooking in a small cafe.
Nevin, now 30, grew up watching cookery shows and top chefs on television and told his family even as a teenager that his aspiration was to achieve a Michelin star, the dream he realised last week. His first time attending the Michelin awarding ceremony, he says he was nervous walking into the venue but remarked it was a very special moment, “walking in there, you could feel how prestigious it is, stood amongst the best of the best, it was an amazing feeling” he says, adding “once the announcement came I felt a great, great weight off my shoulders”.
Given this personal goal and his high end experience, was there pressure put on him to achieve the star on behalf of Carton House? “I joined here with the expectation of working towards achieving the star,” he says, definitively, so clinching it is not necessarily a shock. Does that pressure cease once the star is achieved or supercharge? “Peoples’ expectations are going to be a lot higher now having jumped from just Guide inclusion - the base level of Michelin’s listings - to one-starred, so the pressure is definitely increasing now,” he says. “That means consistently providing a level of top service not only in cookery and selecting produce but in service as well, keeping every detail top notch,” he adds.
With inspectors - and, maybe to a lesser extent, critics such as ourselves - lurking in the shadows, arriving unexpectedly or using pseudonyms to fly under the radar, plus the talk of inspectors checking each others’ homework with repeat visits, how does one prepare for visits or reviews I ask? “I spend a lot of my time through every booking,” Nevin discloses, “making sure there are no strange numbers or emails so we are on top of every guest arriving while also not missing things like birthdays or special occasions — so I did manage to spot inspections twice but I'm not sure if we got a third inspection”.
Nevin shares similar experiences of the personal compromises clinching a star may take, “there are so many sacrifices, like missing family birthdays or forgoing occasions like Christmas, plus the hours are quite unsocial,” he says, but adds “being a chef is more than just a job, though, it is a passion and you have to be fully committed and dedicated to achieve a star, you do whatever it takes to achieve the goal — I think the sacrifices paid off in the end”.
“It is no good being good today and bad tomorrow, you have to be good everyday,” Richard Picard-Edwards, Executive Chef of Ballyfin Demesne in Co. Laois, explains, “that’s the key to a star, finding a very good product and making sure it is consistent above all else, applying that philosophy to absolutely everything from canapé to petit fours, checks in place at every turn”.
First and foremost his goal is to make sure his guests are happy, not pressure to appease Michelin inspectors, he says. “You make sure everything is right and your guests are happy with the food and the experience and you hope the accolades will follow,” he says, adding “it’s better you don’t know an inspector is in I think, because then that way you know you always have a consistent product regardless”
Hailing from Yorkshire, Picard-Edwards joined the five star property in April 2023 bringing experience as head chef of the Michelin-starred restaurant at Lucknam Park Hotel and Spa and won his first Michelin star a decade ago for Lords of The Manor in the Cotswolds. How does Ireland’s dining scene compare with the UK? “It is incredible, the standard is definitely equal to that of the UK,” he says, “and not just classical French cuisine either, there is a real variety and it is almost like every corner of the island has a star, Doolin, Baltimore, East Cork, Galway, I have to try get to them all myself!”
Ballyfin Demense was one of only two five-star hotel properties in the Republic to be awarded three ‘Keys’, the highest accolade in Michelin’s recent reinvention of its hotel ranking, which rewards only “outstanding” hotel experiences. Sparked by this, speculation did suggest Ballyfin’s restaurant could go straight in at two-star level so is there pressure to achieve the second star? “Of course it is a dream, same as it is for every chef, but I am under no pressure,” Picard-Edwards says, “we just won a star, which is amazing, but this is a journey and I hope there is more to come, we are not going to sit on our laurels”.
Though Nevin and Picard-Edwards have been at the helm of their respective restaurants relatively recently, Africano has had to wait considerable time - and several inspections over successive years, or sometimes no inspections on a particular year - to gain the accolade. ‘Why didn’t it happen until now?’, I wonder. “When I first opened the restaurant, my vision of what LIGNUM would be was ‘the best of the best produce’ and I was changing menus weekly or even daily and that had a big impact on us not getting a star because it wasn’t consistent,” he explains. “Every time inspectors came it was a different menu so that was a massive decision I made this year to create those stand-out dishes and keep the bone structure of the menu as consistent as possible,” he adds, saying “with the three Michelin inspector visits we know we had we can see that they had 80% of the same menu, so they could really judge us by that”.
Consistency is key, something each of the three chefs I speak to are at pains to reinforce. Something all three also seem to share is their desire to ascend, each makes no secret about their desire for a second star but in the same breath are quick to caveat that that most chefs share the same desire to achieve that level.
“I came back to the table at the ceremony with that white Lafont chef’s jacket with Molly and Matt (Smith, LIGNUM’s Head Chef) beside me and was like ‘right, let’s get to work’,” Africano says, adding “we are a destination restaurant and not the type of restaurant where we feel one is enough or the end goal, we want to go for two”. He feels the team is at a point where it has the talent and vision to achieve much more, saying “we feel we could do something special, this has given us such energy but what we really want to do now is put a rocket behind us and just go for it”.
Finally, something I ask all three is will that elusive three star rating, the Michelin Guide’s highest accolade - so far seemingly unattainable on the island of Ireland - ever happen? “Three is just a different level,” Africano exhales, “a lot of people don't realise what three star actually is, the detail, the level of work and it’s not just about the food, it is things diners don't even think about that restaurants do and it is the finance needed too, but I do think Ireland will get one eventually”.
Adam Nevin agrees it’s only a matter of time and that the quality is there. He tips Mickael Viljanen to be the likeliest candidate - “he’s the best of the best in Ireland, hopefully one day he will get what he deserves,’ he says - but could Dublin actually be pipped to the prestigious post? Each year the same whispers and speculation swirl: will it be Restaurant Patrick Guilbaud or Chapter One by Mickael Viljanen which clinches the three stars. Maybe Damien Grey in Liath in the south of the city could pip them to the post.
However, it could well be one of the newer contenders who makes a surprise culinary checkmate: Ahmet Dede in Baltimore or Vincent Crepel at Terre in Castlemartyr. All five restaurants hold two stars each and industry insiders tend to agree one or more are in touching distance, some even overdue the accolade.
Add to that that Dublin was effectively overlooked in this year’s ceremony — no ascensions but no demotions (across both stars and Bibs), the status quo retained, which is curious as whispers at the ceremony also swirled that Dublin is going to be the next location for the annual awards. *eyes emoji*
Ultimately, the real story of this year’s Michelin ceremony where Ireland is concerned lay beyond Dublin in Galway, Kildare and Laois, proving that fine dining in Ireland, from one star to potentially three, is definitely no longer just a Dublin game…
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