What will young Troy Maguire do next? 'Bistro cooking is where it's at,' he tells Catherine Cleary, as he moves to the banks of the Grand Canal.
They told Troy Maguire in the kitchen of the Killiney Court Hotel that he would never make a chef. He was 15 at the time. Just over two decades later, Dubliners queued in the street every evening to eat his food as critics, punters and rock stars raved about the good French bistro dishes at L'Gueuleton, the Dublin restaurant where he was in charge of the kitchen.
There were times during those heady days when Maguire would look up from the gas burners in the open-plan restaurant and find that the sight of a room of noisy, happy diners was enough to move him to tears. The gossip columns filled with the names of the famous and fragrant who dined there. Bono was spotted, and the singer Lloyd Cole gave it a rave review on his blog. The only thing that did not go down a treat was the no-bookings policy that led to the queue outside in the run-up to dinnertime.
Then, last year, Maguire got an offer he couldn't refuse. A little piece of culinary Dublin ripe for reimagining had caught the eye of Kelvin Rynhart and Teresa Carr, a husband-and-wife team with long records in the restaurant business. (Rynhart was manager of Bang, the restaurant owned by Christian and Simon Stokes; Carr worked with Ross Lewis at Chapter One and Johnny Cooke.) The lease on Locks Restaurant, on the Grand Canal in the Portobello area of Dublin, was up for grabs, and all they needed was Maguire to bring his bistro magic to the mix.
Several sleepless nights and a tough emotional wrench later, Maguire walked away on good terms with his L'Gueuleton friends to put together what he calls "bistro deluxe" in the venerable restaurant, which is due to reopen early next month.
The ground floor has to be one of the nicest diningrooms in Dublin. But today it is a building site. The ear-splitting whine of a circular saw splits the air, and we step out on to the footpath to escape. As if on cue, three angel-white swans glide past in a line, heads bowed. Maguire grins at them. "I have them on a bleeper," he says. "You're on again at four o'clock, lads."
To avoid the noise we stroll through the red-brick and cherry-blossom streets of Portobello. The walk to find a quiet cafe is long enough to bring home how slightly off-the-beaten-track Locks is, landlocked in these terraces of expensive Victorian houses.
On the way Maguire gives a quick rundown on the economic realities of bistro cooking using the best ingredients. There is the organic-chicken supplier who charges €11 a bird. That's €4 a breast - four times what a supermarket charges for a regular chicken breast - before anything is cooked or served and before any rent is paid. Add to that the fact that organic suppliers tend to deliver once a week. So where do you store 200 chickens in an already-small restaurant on the banks of a canal?
The building has undergone a major refurbishment, partly to cater for the demands of the food that Maguire wants to serve. A salvaged parquet floor has been laid on the ground floor, and vanilla-coloured walls - familiar to those for whom Locks was a favourite haunt - remain in the wood-panelled main diningroom.
At just 33 Maguire is typical of a generation of can-do people whose careers have blossomed in a decade of previously unknown prosperity and confidence. He wears sweatshirts and jeans and says uncheffy things such as "it's all about the love".
The idea for L'Gueuleton was born over several martinis at the Clarence hotel with Declan O'Regan, the fortysomething owner of Hogan's bar, on South Great George's Street. They got the name from Simple French Food, Richard Olney's bistro bible. Maguire has memorised the translation "because I've had to answer the question so often". It means, he says, "a meal among friends, comprising many dishes washed down by great quantities of better-than-ordinary wine, lasting for hours and accompanied by much gaiety and laughter".
After his inauspicious start at the Killiney Court, and a stint at the old Pink Bicycle, in the Powerscourt Centre, Maguire worked at Eden, in Temple Bar. Then he travelled to Australia and worked with a number of chefs, among them the influential Damien Pignolet. In 2000 he returned home and went to work at Conrad Gallagher's Peacock Alley. Gallagher's empire was just starting to crumble, and Peacock Alley's head chef at the time, Aidan Byrne, brought Maguire with him in a parachute jump to the Commons, on St Stephen's Green.
It was there the young Maguire began to see himself heading down the fine-dining route. "Aidan was a big factor. He made me want to be a better chef. And the more you learn the more interesting it becomes." After three years at the Commons Maguire went to Bang, to earn enough money to fund a six-month unpaid apprenticeship at the renowned French Laundry, in California. The chef Anthony Bourdain had helped him organise the placement after Maguire met him in Bang. But then his old mentor Aidan Byrne asked him to go to La Stampa, on Dawson Street. "He said: 'We'll turn it into Balthazar' [ the famous bistro in lower Manhattan]. So I said: 'Okay, grand.' "
He shelved his plan to become one of the dozens of chefs in the Napa Valley working days to pay their way and learning by night in the French Laundry. But La Stampa was not to be, and Aidan Byrne left for London. After a while Maguire left, too. For a time he cooked in a hotel in Longford. Then O'Regan's plan to open an Italian restaurant beside Hogan's fell through. The two "went on the rip" and ended up over those martinis, talking about plans for the small premises on Fade Street.
Was he surprised by the positive reaction to L'Gueuleton? "I suppose a lot of other people looked at it as an example. But for us it was just a case that every other city has a decent middle-of-the-road French bistro, so why not Dublin?" In the early days it was "ridiculously cheap", he says, "through the good graces of Declan", and prices had to come up a little to make any kind of profit. "I used the same suppliers as the high-end people, using ingredients like foie gras but mixing it with chicken livers in a parfait - that kind of bistro cooking, with high-quality ingredients."
Does he regret not heading out to the French Laundry and the rigours of its three-Michelin-star world? "I suppose I'd be doing some kind of degustation eight-course ego trip now," he says. "But I'm happy enough with my lot. Bistro cooking is where it's at."
The plan for Locks is bistro posh. The main restaurant seats 40; upstairs, a function room or overspill room, depending on demand, will seat 25 for what Maguire describes as a feasting menu. "We will bring up whole roasts that can be carved beside the table with big bowls of pasta and vegetables." A second room seats another dozen. "It'll be basically like an Italian family restaurant but with French bistro food - relaxed but refined, I suppose. Understated, refined."
They do not plan to assault the ears of those who fondly remember the tranquillity of the music-free diningroom of the old Lock, but there will be music. "Nothing obtrusive, though," Maguire says. We'll hold him to that promise.
He is bringing his black-pudding dish from L'Gueuleton and is excited about the idea of an hors d'oeuvre plate with tasty mouthfuls of food such as cured fish and charcuterie, which will be served all day with a glass of wine. On the way back to the restaurant he talks about prices. Although the cooking will be similar to Fade Street he will be using slightly more expensive ingredients, such as turbot, prawns and scallops. "Starters will be around €13 or €14, and average mains will be €26."
The kitchen will be staffed by chefs whom Maguire has recruited from restaurants around Dublin, as well as one from the Oak Room in London. "I've been sourcing decent chefs who have a passion for what they're doing."
During the refurbishment of the building he has been sourcing food. The day before, he travelled to Enniskillen, in Co Fermanagh, to meet Pat O'Doherty, the butcher behind Black Bacon, to commission a bacon with morels for the restaurant. He had hoped to take some of the young chefs out to see O'Doherty's pigs on the island on Lough Erne where they are reared, but they were still overwintering on the mainland.
Does he worry about what the restaurant critics will make of his new venture? "I have worried about them in the past. But myself and everyone involved are trying to get it right. We're not trying to fool people, and we're our own quality control."
He wants to make Locks "one unique special place". And will it take bookings? "Bookings, yeah, for sure," he says. "Some people have said, 'Isn't it a bit far out from town?' but I'm not a bit afraid of going out that far. I think we will fill it - and it will be nice to get back to boozy lunches."
Locks, which reopens next month, is on Windsor Terrace, Portobello, Dublin 8, 01-4543391
Four of Troy Maguire's bistro favourites
VICHYSSOISE
Serves six
6 large potatoes, preferably organic
3 medium leeks, preferably organic
2 Spanish onions, preferably organic
1 litre chicken stock
olive oil
125g butter
300ml cream
1 bunch watercress
1 lemon
100g undyed smoked haddock per person
Finely slice the onions and potatoes (it's easier to quarter the potatoes before slicing them). Cover a wide, thick-based saucepan with a good drizzle of olive oil, add the butter, then put on the stove to melt. Add the onion and potato, sweating them on a low heat, so they don't colour.
Meanwhile, finely slice and wash the leeks. Reserve the green parts, adding the leek whites to the onion and potato. Season with sea salt and fresh black pepper and sweat for a further 15 minutes, until the potatoes are fully cooked and mushy. In a separate pot bring the chicken stock to the boil. Add the greens of the leeks to the potato mix and sweat for a further two minutes. Add the boiling chicken stock, simmer for two minutes, then blitz in a jug blender. Add cream, strain into a metal container and refrigerate immediately, so the soup retains its vivid green colour. Adjust the seasoning when the soup is cold.
Before serving, dress the watercress with olive oil and lemon juice. Fry the haddock. Take vichyssoise from fridge, pour into bowls and spoon a ball of watercress into the middle of each. Sit the haddock on top of the watercress, with a squeeze of lemon.
JELLIED HAM HOCK
Terrine serves 10
3 good-sized ham hocks, from a good butcher
2 carrots
2 leeks
2 celery stalks
2 onions
bay leaf
black peppercorns
soft herb stalks (tarragon, chervil or parsley)
2 cups cooked and chopped mushrooms
2 cups finely diced sweated onions
2 cups (or 4 bunches) chopped flat-leaf parsley
good-quality vinegar
Soak and rinse the hocks under cold water, then put in a good-sized pot and cover with a generous amount of cold water (do not add salt). Bring to the boil, then drain. Cover again with cold water, bring to a simmer, then skim off any impurities. Cut the carrots, leeks, celery and onions into large chunks and add to the pot with a bay leaf, some peppercorns and the herb stalks. Bring to a simmer and skim. Cook for between one and a half and two hours.
The ham hocks are ready when the bone can be easily
removed. Strain the hocks, keeping the stock but discarding the vegetables. Put the stock back in a clean pan and reduce by two-thirds.
Once the hocks have cooled, remove the tendons (stringy fibres) and flake the meat into a large bowl. Add the mushrooms, sweated onions and parsley. Adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper and a splash of vinegar. When the stock has cooled, pour it over the meat mixture and mix well. Place in individual pots or a large terrine and allow to set for six hours. Serve with crusty bread, cornichons and mustard.
PAN-FRIED DUCK BREAST WITH CARROT AND ORANGE PUREE AND SWEETENED CHICORY
soft butter
brown sugar
½ chicory head per person
6 medium carrots, preferably organic
1 star anise
orange juice
1 duck breast per person
Line a wide pan with soft butter and sprinkle with brown sugar and roll around the pan to give a even coating. Cut the chicory in half and place cut side down in pan (1 half of chicory per person). Cover with butter wrappers and place on a low heat. Cook for 1 hour. Allow natural juices to slowly caramelise with the butter and sugar. Chicory should be golden brown and soft. If the chicory sticks to the pan, deglaze with orange juice.
Grate the carrots, then put in a pan with the star anise. Cover with orange juice and simmer until all the juice has evaporated. Repeat the process twice, until the grated carrot is completely soft and a little overcooked, with no trace of liquid. Puree in a liquidiser, then cream with a large spoon of butter. Season and puree again. The puree should hold a peak when placing on the plate.
Trim the duck breast of any excess fat and score the skin. Put in a pan (skin side down) on a low heat, to render the fat down, until the skin is crisp. Put in the oven at 170 degrees for eight minutes. Take out and leave to rest for five minutes. Serve with peppery salad leaves and baby turnips or potatoes.
APRICOT, PLUM AND NECTARINE PAIN PERDU
You can use any stale white bread to make a bread-and-butter pudding, but this luxurious pain perdu is made with brioche, which you can make or buy. The fruits will be in season shortly.
BRIOCHE
500g plain flour, sifted
10g salt
7g dried yeast
4 large or 5 medium eggs
130ml milk
30g caster sugar
300g soft butter, cut into small cubes
Put the flour, salt and yeast in a mixer and combine for one minute. Whisk the eggs, sugar and milk. Add to the dry ingredients and mix until a dough forms, scraping down any dough that forms on the sides of the bowl. When the dough is well worked, add the soft butter in stages, allowing for the butter to incorporate into the dough before adding the next. The finished dough should look smooth and slightly glossy. Leave the dough to prove in a clean bowl, covered with a damp cloth, for 45 to 50 minutes.
Knock back the dough and put it in a greased 24cm-by-11cm loaf tin (for an even raise, leave to prove again for a further 30-35 minutes). Place in a pre-heated oven for 20 minutes at 200 degrees, then reduce the heat to 180 degrees and bake for a further 25 minutes. When the brioche is cooked, remove it from the tin and leave to cool on a wire rack.
FRUIT
stoned fruit
100g caster sugar
1 measure of brandy
1 vanilla pod, split and scraped (discard rest of pod)
You can use any amount of stone fruit, such as peaches, nectarines or soaked dried apricots. Segment the fruit and chop it into bite-sized pieces. Leave in a bowl to macerate with the caster sugar, brandy and vanilla pod.
CUSTARD
250g caster sugar
6 eggs
1 vanilla pod, split and scraped (discard rest of pod)
300ml milk
300ml double cream
Cream the caster sugar with the eggs and vanilla. Add the milk and cream. At this stage you can either soak the sliced brioche in the custard mix and fry it off in a nonstick pan until golden or you can lay out the brioche in a nonstick baking tray, pour the custard mix over it and bake like a bread-and-butter pudding.
To serve, quickly fry the fruit in a hot nonstick frying pan, pour it over the portioned brioche and bake for a further 5-10 minutes.
Serve with a good dollop of creme fraiche.