Belfast?s Best

It?s amazing considering Danny Millar?s ability to use perfect timing and a deft touch to create stunningly simple, yet beautiful dishes that he?s rarely on time for an interview. It was with no great surprise when his good friend and fellow chef Andy Rae, of Belfast?s Mourne Seafood, told me Millar was running behind schedule.

While waiting on the charismatic North Belfast man Rae talks about some of the trips the two have taken abroad, trips centred around food and drink. He mentions they hope to make it to one of the world?s culinary hot spots later in the year ? Hong Kong ? in celebration of both turning the ripe old age of 40. When Millar arrives, it takes just seconds for the banter to begin between two of the biggest characters the North?s restaurant scene is likely to ever see. Millar admits he only got to bed ?around 5am? after playing cards and drinking long into the night with some colleagues to say goodbye to one of his staff who?s leaving the country.

We finally settle down to talk about how, in the years since the duo first met at catering college in the late ?80s, things have changed dramatically in the restaurant scene here.

Fast forward  some 23 years since that first meeting and Belfast (and the North to a smaller degree) has had a food renaissance. 1988 was the year Andy Rae and Danny Millar began catering college, becoming friends despite the former being from the Donegall Road and the latter being a New Lodge man. They may not have known it then, but their combined influence on Belfast?s restaurant scene would later help it move from ?crispy pancakes and spaghetti hoops? to an industry the city can be proud of. The journey from then until now is a case of ?two different worlds? according to both Millar and Rae.

?We were 16 in catering college, it was September of 1988 and when we started cooking in college, it was more about quantity than quality, people went out to eat to get a belly buster,? said Andy Rae.

New Lodge man Danny Millar (who now jointly owns Balloo House and Parson?s Nose with a business partner), was his partner in crime. It?s a 20+ year friendship that?s obvious from the joking that goes on between the duo in between talking seriously about food.

?Danny and I went to college and then we went to work in the Strand restaurant together and it was exactly that, if you think of some of the dishes that were cooked then, eating out was just an absolute novelty, it wasn?t actually what you got, it was the fact that you sat down and somebody handed you a plate of food.

?You think of the number one selling dish in the Strand restaurant [the duo?s first big restaurant jobs] back then was deep fried mushrooms with garlic mayonnaise and a bit of mustard crest and they were literally just deep fried, no breading on them or anything. People were just happy to sit down and have that social aspect of eating out and there was nothing really for them to compare it to.

?The Strand restaurant was busy because it was perceived to be one of the best at the time. We both worked there and it was phenomenally busy.

?People talk about Irish food history but I think the last 30 years have been the most important in Irish history of food. You think back and a lot of chefs for different reasons left the country ? economical, the Troubles, whatever and they?ve went and learned their craft and now there?s a big draw to come back. Belfast is the place to be and they?ve brought back all these different experiences like the Paul Rankins of this world.?

Millar is quick to point out that it is Rankin above all others who has had the biggest influence in recent memory.

?You can?t underestimate what Paul Rankin did for the Belfast food scene,? said Danny.

?I remember talking to Nigel Haworth [a fellow Great British Menu chef] from Northcote Manor and he was saying to me that they used to come over all the time because Rankin was where it was at. Instead of going to London they?d fly over here, him and Paul Heathcote, this was before the days when they had their Michelin stars. They were coming over because he was all the talk because he was bringing lots of influences from California. I?ll always remember when I walked up to look at the menu for the first time at Roscoff?s, I didn?t know what 80 per cent of the menu was!

?Black bean soup sticks in my head, I remember thinking woah, what?s this? Me and Andy grew up in the same environment ? crispy pancakes and spaghetti hoops. Let?s call a spade a spade, we didn?t pick olives or weren?t getting fillets of fish? it was fish fingers and it wasn?t Findus, it was yellow packs.

?I was in here yesterday [Mourne Seafood] for lunch and my daughter Jessica had crab claws? I wouldn?t have known what a crab looked like when I was her age. I guess she?s a bit different because she?s in a circle of restaurants now but it?s still totally black and white compared to when we grew up? it?s hard to even put it into context.?

The past five years, believes Millar, have been the catalyst for change in the city.

?The change since I worked in Cayenne four years ago has been phenomenal, I can name now five really good restaurants that I couldn?t when I was cooking there,? he said.

?You?ve got Tedford?s, Shu, Ginger, Deane?s? well Deane?s has always been one of the good ones and I?d even give Gerard a shout ? wee Gerard Donnelly at me:nu. Even up round in 27 Talbot Street, there was never that until the last few years. You?d Nick?s Warehouse banging out whatever he did and there?d have been Deane?s and Roscoff?s and the rest were way, way in a different universe ? burgers and chips, there was that much of a gap.?

Gone are the days when food was just about getting quantity on a plate. Thanks to cheap flights and TV channels devoted to food, most customers in 2010 know much more about food than they would have in the late ?80s. Add into the mix the increasing tourism boom that the city is seeing and Belfast?s restaurants have seen a major turnaround.

?You have to realise that during the period where we had the Troubles, the only tourists we had were journalists who were over here on a budget covering some horrific event or stand-off and they?d eat out in the old Roscoff?s where I used to work,? said Andy.

?Now it?s different, we have tourists now? we have a summer trade and we have a lot of people from the South coming up North now because it?s more economical to have a night out in Belfast than Dublin. So it?s slightly different, plus we had to work harder to keep our customers back then.?No one wanted to come here but now you?ve got all these little bars that are owner-operator like the Spaniard or us and they work their balls off and the staff are looked after.

?You go to Manchester or London and it?s just saturated by these big chains who have the Starbucks philosophy where everybody is all smiley, smiley and they?re into getting their pensions and it?s all pre-packed. We?re different ? we?ve had to work harder to get our trade, we have to make sure that everybody who comes in gets looked after.?

And while the choice available to the paying punter these days in Belfast has come on leaps and bounds Millar and Rae both hope that the North at worst keeps the solitary Michelin Star it has.

?I hope there should be one or two definitely,? says Danny. ?I think if Michael Deane hands his star in, which is a possibility? I don?t know if it?s true or not but it?s a possibility. If that happened it would be a real shame, but the financial restraints on Michael Deane to run that business is horrific to put it into context, but it would be a terrible day if that happened, it really would.

?I worked in Shanks before there was all these financial restraints of the current market and during the week you?d do seven or so tables.

?That?s not going to work nowadays, you need bums on seats, that?s what it?s all about. I went down to Balloo because it was a pub in the country with a wee fine dining restaurant but we can only support upstairs because we have downstairs.

?Downstairs is like a mean machine, on Saturday night we did 220 and upstairs we did 48. In fairness we could turn that three times over at the weekend but during the week if we got 12 in I?m running around delighted. We?ve started this spring to try and promote the restaurant upstairs  because I got a lot of customers from doing a bit of TV work ? amazingly all these people are coming over from Wales and Scotland, Dublin, everywhere, because they?ve seen me on TV.

?You can?t underestimate that and this year I don?t have that so we?re trying to promote upstairs. Downstairs is a monster, if we get any more business downstairs it?d be a shock, so we?re doing a spring time menu during the week between Tuesday ? Thursday where we do a set £27 menu. I know that probably still sounds a little dear to people but we have a 10 seater booked because of it that we wouldn?t have had this Tuesday. Tomorrow night we have 16 booked, which is a first for a long time on a Tuesday. I?m trying to bring people upstairs. Upstairs you?ll have an amuse bouche and you?ll have bread and it?s not Michelin star but it?s on that level.?

Rae, whose Mourne Seafood Bar in Belfast was voted the Northern Ireland restaurant of the year by The Good Food Guide in 2009, believes that the fact that Ireland as a whole currently holds just five stars points to the fact that demand for that style of restaurant may not be there anymore.

?It just shows you that if there was huge demand for Michelin Star restaurants they?d be opening,? said Andy.

?There?s a skill base there. I know for a fact there?s maybe ten chefs in the North of Ireland who could probably hold down a one star but the demand isn?t there and that?s a crime in a way because even in Belfast there should be at least two.

?If you?ve the choice of having a Michelin Star or a busy restaurant, you ask any restaurateur that and there?s no comparison. You just want to have somewhere that?s busy. For us being young chefs no one every sat us down and told us ?this is how the sums work?. In a way you learn it as you go along and even if you went to university and got a hospitality degree there?s certain things you just can?t be taught at school. You only get one shot at it, it?s not like you can say ?okay I?ve done that wrong?, it?s very difficult to get another shot at it once it gets that bad. It?s difficult to dust yourself down and get back up again.?

Michelin stars aside, tourism, believes Rae, is the major thing for Belfast right now, though Millar is scathing about the role the Tourist Board plays.

?I think one of the problems is the Tourist Board. I don?t think they do enough to promote local restaurants, they?re big supporters of big brands but they?re not supporting individual units and they should be.  I think they should be a sticking it out there ? a top ten.

?You come to Belfast and they tell you that you should stay there and you should eat here, the best thing about Belfast is this bar or whatever.

?I think Belfast has come on dramatically in the last five years and it?s getting stronger, but I think the Tourist Board, the politicians and the Council need to do something like offer a reduction in rates or something because you?re a restaurant operator to promote the whole industry. I think there should be a tax break because if a restaurant goes under then you lose all that staff and there?s a lot of negativity with the unemployment. There?s scope for a lot more promotion of the city and I think more so of independent operators who are each week looking at numbers ? so many thousand a year would make a difference to them breaking even or closing their doors so I think there should be some sort of government incentive.?

Both Millar and Rae?s restaurants are producing food that?s Michelin standard and getting a star would be a welcome addition for either chef, but, as Rae points out, they?d much rather have restaurants full to the rafters every night than a star above the door.

If these two keep it up, the North will continue to grow stronger and stronger as a destination famous for its food… and that can only be a good thing.