High profile new restaurant openings headed by Irish teams, and the growing success of family-run firms, are dominant features of the Murphia List 2020, released today.
The list, published annually around St Patrick's Day, identifies Irish people who have made significant contributions to the hospitality and food and drink sectors in London.
There are 57 entries on the list this year, the largest in the six years the compilation has been drawn up by siblings Catherine and Gavin Hanly, who run the London-based eating out guide, Hot Dinners.
In the past 12 months, four new Irish-run restaurants have opened to great fanfare and critical acclaim in the UK capital, and a fifth is on the way. The teams involved all feature prominently in the list. Cavan-born chef Adrian Martin makes the list for the first time. He is soon to open his first restaurant, Wildflower, at Buck Street Market, a new shipping container development adjacent to Camden Market.
Tallaght-born chef Anna Haugh – one of the presenters of the revived BBC1 show Ready, Steady, Cook – opened Myrtle, named after Myrtle Allen, in Chelsea in March. In May, Robin and Sarah Gill’s restaurant empire expanded to include the critics’ darling, Darby’s, in the Ballymore Group’s Embassy Gardens development.
Later in the summer head chef Patrick Powell and restaurant manager Conor Daly brought a distinctly Irish feel to Allegra, on the seventh floor of the landmark Manhattan Loft Gardens skyscraper in Stratford.
In November, chef and restaurateur Richard Corrigan teamed up with pub owner Tony Gibney, and another Irishman, John Nugent, chief executive of the hospitality group Green & Fortune, to open Daffodil Mulligan restaurant and bar in Shoreditch.
Cormac Gibney, who was assistant manager of Gibney’s in Malahide before taking on the manager role at Gibney's, London, an Irish bar beneath Daffodil Mulligan, makes the list for the first time.
The Corrigan family and senior staff at Corrigan Group restaurants make numerous appearances on the list. Chef and restaurateur Richard Corrigan is joined by his son Richie, who returned from working in Hong Kong to take up the position of manager at Daffodil Mulligan. His daughter Jess makes the media list, as co-founder of Crab Communications. Fiona Hannon, head chef at Bentley’s and Aidan McGee, head chef at Corrigan’s of Mayfair, also feature.
Two groups of sisters, working together in food businesses, also make the list. Siobhan Peyton, who co-founded Peyton & Byrne with her brother Oliver Peyton, has joined forces with her sisters Marie and Caitriona Peyton. The trio set up Roastery + Toastery, a cafe serving toasted sandwiches and speciality coffee in Camden.
Aoife and Johanna Ledwidge launched J+A Cafe in Clerkenwell in 2008, serving Irish home cooking favourites such as soda bread and chocolate Guinness cake. According to Hot Dinners they are also working this year with their brother JP on Cabü by the Lakes, a development of log cabins, lakeshore houses, a restaurant, bar and lifestyle store, in Killykeen Forest in Cavan.
THE MURPHIA LIST 2020
Chefs
Kenneth Culhane – Head chef, The Dysart
Shauna Froydenlund – Chef patron, Marcus
Fiona Hannon – Head chef, Bentley's
Anna Haugh – Chef patron, Myrtle
Colin Kelly – Head chef, 22 Grosvenor Square
Marguerite Keogh – Had chef, The Five Fields
RE-ENTRY: Simon Lamont – Raw bar head chef, Seabird
NEW: Adrian Martin – Chef patron, Wildflower
Dave McCarthy – Head chef, Scott's
Aidan McGee – Head chef, Corrigan's Mayfair
Tom Mullin – BOH operations, Pizza Pilgirms
Patrick Powell – Head chef, Allegra
Clare Smyth MBE – Chef patron, Core by Clare Smyth
Restaurateurs
Sinead Campbell – Co-owner, Bong Bong's Manila Kanteen
Richard Corrigan – Chef patron, Corrigan Collection
John Devitt – Owner, Koya
Garrett Fitzgerald – Restaurateur, Butchies
Robin and Sarah Gill – Restaurateurs, The Dairy, Counter Culture, Sorella, Darby's and The Yard
Brian Hannon – Restaurateur, Super 8 Restaurants: Smoking Goat, Kiln, Brat
John King – Restaurateur, Bowling Bird
NEW: Restaurant owners, Aoife and Johanna Ledwidge – J+A Cafe
NEW: Cafe owners, Siobhan, Marie and Caitriona Peyton – Roastery + Toastery
David Moore – Founding director, Pied a Terre
John Nugent – Chief executive, Green & Fortune
Oliver Peyton – Chief executive, Peyton & Byrne
Mark and Alan Wogan – Directors, Homeslice
Bars
Patrick Dardis – Chief executive, Young & Co Brewery
Gearoid Devane – Club founder, wine importer and sommelier, Trade
NEW: Cormac Gibney – Bar manager, Gibney's
NEW: James Goggin – Head of sales, Empirical Spirits
Aaron Wall and Ciarán Smith – Directors, Homeboy
Front of house
RE-ENTRY: Richie Corrigan – Restaurant manager, Daffodil Mulligan
NEW: Conor Daly – Restaurant manager, Allegra
Darren McHugh – General manager, The Ledbury
Oisin Rogers – Publican and restaurateur, The Guinea Grill
Garreth Walsh – General manager, Kimpton Fitzroy
The producers
Evin O'Riordain – Founder, The Kernel Brewery
Darragh O'Shea – Owner, O'Shea's Butchers
Steve Ryan – Food photographer and co-founder Root + Bone and 40FT Brewery
Media
Jessica Corrigan – Co-founder, Crab Communications
Diana Henry – Food writer and broadcaster
Niamh Shields – Food and travel blogger, Eat like a girl
Joe Warwick – Food writer and broadcaster, World Restaurant Awards
Behind the scenes
NEW: Gary Dunne – Director of Culture, London Irish Centre
NEW: Jim Lyons – Food and beverage manager, Claridge's
Richard O'Connell – Restaurant consultant, Seasoned Consultancy
Noel Mahony – Chief executive, BaxterStorey
Sinead Mallozzi – Chief executive, Sketch
Charlie McCarthy – Business development manager, A Drop of Irish
Paul McKenna – Managing director, Red Branch Hospitality
Alex Muir – Deputy director of operations, Sketch
