One of the disadvantages of being a chef is that people are reluctant to invite you over for dinner. They seem to think that their best would never be good enough. Having relatively recently moved back to Dungarvan, Co Waterford, after 14 years away (on my part), Maire and I are keen to meet new people. Not having a house of our own at the moment, our entertaining is fairly restricted.
A couple with whom we have recently become friendly asked us over to their place for dinner one Sunday night recently. Unfortunately we had to turn the date down as we were going away. The woman later told Maire that she had been plucking up the courage for weeks to ask us over and was so relieved that we couldn't accept.
The truth is that, for the most part, chefs are an easy lot to please. We're just so happy to be served food for a change. As long as the company is good and there is plenty of wine, I'm happy. Few people believe that my favourite food of all time is still bacon and cabbage, when I'm lucky enough to get it - usually in my mother-in-law's.
I've also been known to hot-foot it out of the restaurant of an evening and head over to the local chipper for a battered sausage, scallops and coleslaw. With it usually comes a healthy serving of abuse from locals: "Hey Flynn, what are you doing here?" This, of course, isn't exactly working wonders for my figure - eating junk food late at night is probably one of the biggest no-nos for aspiring Brad Pitts such as myself.
Pavo, my sous chef, is a keen cyclist and, having seen my love handles at close range, has been encouraging me to drop my late-night chip habit and go cycling with him in the afternoons. He is probably also fed up with me accusing the staff on a regular basis of cutting my apron strings!
So, enthused with the challenge, I bought a second-hand mountain bike called Smokey Bear and can now be seen on the road to Ring most afternoons, groaning at the attempt to regain my luscious pre-marital figure.
Dungarvan in summertime is a delight after the long dark rainy months of winter. The boats are back on the water and at weekends the bay is packed with craft of all shapes and sizes. This is when our tourist season kicks in, strangers coming in ever increasing numbers to take advantage of our ideal between-mountain-and-sea location. Having always worked in busy all-year-round restaurants in London and Dublin, moving back to my home town with a short tourist season was something of a shock.
With the sun comes calmer weather, which means good fishing. Seafood is generally scarce and expensive, but when the weather is fine it becomes a bit more plentiful and reasonable.
The last week or so I've been thinking about lobster. It's still a bit pricey but should come down a little soon. The longer I cook, the more I realise that it's not what you do to food that determines how good the dish is, but how good the product is in the first place. When I do put lobster on the menu, I'm going to serve it out of the shell, lightly coated in a frothy guacamole cream - a posh prawn-and-avocado, if you like - maybe served with some pasta, perfect with a glass of chilled Chablis on a summer evening.
Carmel, our wash-up woman whose husband is a fisherman, brought me in some mackerel this morning. I love surprises like this so that I can test myself with a "what have I got in the fridge?" dish.
I decided to leave the fish whole as they weren't very big and had a lovely shiny taut appearance, just as really fresh fish should. I roasted some beetroot in foil and served it with sliced new potatoes under crisp cos lettuce. Then I roasted the mackerel and made a white wine butter sauce flavoured with ginger and cumin.
I always try to visualise what the dish will look like and jump from flavour to flavour on the plate to see if it all works together. Mackerel is a meaty oily fish that will take strong flavours, hence the ginger and cumin. The slight vinegar overtone to the dish, coupled with the cos lettuce and beetroot, gives a nice clean flavour that cuts across the oiliness of the fish.
Richie, our dessert genius, is trying out new dishes at the moment for a new dinner dessert menu. He has come up with a striking new way of presenting a parfait so that it resembles a perfect cone. He is doing a hazelnut and white chocolate parfait with a compote of strawberries, essentially a simple dish but transformed into something special. It always amazes me that, when there is a bit of drama on a plate, diners spot it in the restaurant. Now he can hardly keep up with the demand for the dish.
For me this is the most exciting time of the year. Lots of new ingredients are coming into season, new dishes to try and - hopefully - plenty of customers to serve.
Roast mackerel with new potatoes, beetroot, ginger and cumin butter
For Two Servings:
Two 8 oz mackerel (heads off and gutted) One head of baby cos lettuce 10 cooked half new potatoes Two medium-sized beetroot (roasted in a low oven until soft) 1/2 red onion finely sliced
For The Sauce:
Two shallots finely chopped One small bulb of ginger finely chopped Eight black peppercorns 1/2 level teaspoon cumin powder 1 pinch salt 4 oz butter (unsalted if possible) 4 fl oz chicken stock (diluted cube is fine) 2 fl oz white wine 2 fl oz cream Salt, pepper, lemon juice
Gently sweat the shallots and ginger in a quarter of the butter and add the peppercorns and cumin. Cook with no colour until soft. Add the liquid ingredients and reduce to a syrup. Add the cream, bring to the boil and whisk in remaining butter. Season and add lemon juice to taste. Strain and keep warm. Flour the mackerel, dusting off excess flour and seal in a hot pan. Place in a preheated oven (180C) for about five minutes, turning once. Slice the beetroot and assemble with potatoes on a warm plate. Place cos lettuce on top, scatter the red onions on top again. Remove the mackerel from the oven, drain off excess fat, season and squeeze some lemon over. Spoon as much of the sauce as you fancy around the mackerel and serve.
Paul Flynn is proprietor of The Tannery in Dungarvan, Co Waterford