Martin Shanahan

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“You let the sea decide what's for dinner” says Martin Shanahan. In Martin Shanahan's world, the sea is the mighty mistress, the mother ship, providing the bounteous blessing that has allowed the chef-proprietor of Kinsale's Fishy Fishy Café to create what may be the busiest restaurant in Ireland.

Fishy Fishy is a phenomenon, turning over the sort of numbers that city restaurateurs would kill for. That it does in such numbers whilst only offering a fish and shellfish menu is even more extraordinary, because the Irish are believed to be slow to order fish in a restaurant.

That's the sort of conventional wisdom that Martin Shanahan would take issue with. Not because he's a contentious guy – he isn't: he's laid-back – but simply because in his world people will eat fish when the fish is of optimum quality and is cooked to perfection. And that's the thing with Shanahan: he makes his world the way he wants it to be. He is, in the best sense, open-minded. He sees no reason not to do what he wants to do, he sees no reason not to do your best, he sees no reason not to be the best. He makes his world.

He arrived in Kinsale back in 1984 and worked in Jim Edward's place, before heading to San Francisco for three years. Back in Kinsale, he opened the Kinsale Gourmet Store – a fish boutique – but it was only with the move uptown to The Guardwell and the creation of Fishy Fishy Café that Shanahan's skill became apparent. Here, he found his voice, and the result was explosive. “Our food is simple, but people seem to like it”, he said to us back in 1999 as the restaurant began a decade-long ascent that has yet to peak.

Today, he is known nationally thanks to fine television programmes – “Martin's Mad About Fish” – programmes that exude the real Cork brio, thanks to the work of a good RTE crew from Cork. Over the next few years he will become public property, and he's ready for it, because he is always two steps ahead, and conscious of his blessings.

Fishy Fishy Cafe, Crowley Quay, Kinsale, County Cork
021 470 0415