Michael Deane

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Years ago, we were part of a judging panel at a young chef's competition. When it came time to hand out the gongs, we said something in our wee speech along the lines of: “Great cooks are not born: they are made”. Over in the corner, diffident as ever, Michael Deane, one of the judges on the day, nodded his head. No craft without the graft: Michael Deane has always known that.

He is the Van Morrison of the Northern Irish kitchen: brilliant, fully aware of the culture he works in and to which he is devoted, but with a shy truculence, as if he is slightly uncomfortable around people other than in the workings of the kitchen. Once, when he first had his eponymous restaurant in little Helen's Bay, east of Belfast, he cooked for us a perfect meal, something that happens rarely, his “Astral Weeks” moment, if you like: gravadlax; tatin of lamb with mushy peas; Thai-style duck wontons; bacon mash; lemon tart, everything we ate as good as it could possibly be. Wherever he cooked, Deane was always ahead of the pack, the star of the kitchen, adapting new ideas with lightning speed and delivering them with exacting perfection. If he had the same fluency as a restaurateur as he enjoys as a chef, he would be world-renowned, but his shyness hasn't stopped him building a neat little empire of places to eat, and he has always attracted fine young talent into his kitchen, young people who learn well under his tutelage. Like Van Morrison, he is mysterious, and he may even be mysterious to himself. But if you catch the brilliance that comes out of the brooding, it is magic itself.

Deanes, 30-40 Howard Street, Belfast BT1 6PF Northern Ireland
028 9033 1134
www.michaeldeane.co.uk