Ian Orr

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He is a calm, measured man, Ian Orr, so it's almost a surprise to learn that he attributes his love of food, cooking and the world of restaurants to two of the most singular, striking personalities in the business: the late Robbie Millar of Shanks, and the late Rose Gray of London's River Café. “ I cook the way I do because of them”, says Orr, a statement that shows his modesty, but also his willingness to accept lessons from the best, and to mould and assimilate them to his own style.

The good news is that he is still a young man – born 1983, and educated in Clondermot High School in Derry – so his tabula rasa has yet to have even its mature style engraved onto it. It's this openness in his cooking, the lack of any didacticism, the absence of any sense that he is “there”, that we admire. You get the feeling of a man who set out on a path, and who is happy to tread that path, without a thought to arriving, dwelling in the moment of each meal, each afternoon and evening of service in Brown's restaurant, there in Derry's Waterside, creating a whole new template of eating for the city.

 

Browns, 1 Bonds Hill, Waterside, Derry, County Londonderry
028 7134 5180
http://www.brownsrestaurant.com