Chef Noel McMeel, Culinary Director of the new Ebrington Hotel in Derry, Ireland, is known as the “King of Modern Irish Cuisine” because he is the pioneer of using seasonal, local, fresh Irish ingredients. He is also the author of the third-best cookbook in the world, Irish Pantry, and is a famous Irish TV broadcaster.
Chef Noel grew up on his family’s farm inspired by his mother’s traditional home cooking; but long before he became a chef, he was the all-Ireland traditional Irish dance champion from ages 14 through 17. He could have continued to dance, but cooking was his passion. McMeel received a scholarship to the prestigious Johnson & Wales University and went on to work in some of America’s most famous restaurants, including Le Cirque, Chez Panisse, and Jean-Louis Palladin at the Watergate, where he met the Clintons. McMeel – that’s his real name – was once told by an American agent to go to McDonald’s and sell his name as a “Big McMeal.” McMeel laughed it off.
For this interview, I flew to Ireland and drove to his home in the beautiful countryside of Northern Island. Here, Chef Noel McMeel lives with his partner, Dessie; dog, Bailey; cat, Tittles, and twenty-one chickens.
Exclusive Interview with Chef Noel McMeel
What brought you to cooking?
I always wanted to be a good cook. I loved food. For us, food was very much a thank-you, made from my mother’s and my family’s hands: the jam, the bread, the cakes. The ham came from the pigs, the milk from the cows; the trifle was the cream skimmed off the milk which we kept to whip it up. Getting ready for a meal at my home was like getting ready for royalty because you used the best plates and best glasses. There were roses that you’d picked yourself, and the scent coming through the house was amazing. The celebration of food was so important to us.
What were the core values of your home?
Giving was massive. My parents gave every child in our home a toolbox of love, sharing, respect, and decency. As we grew older, they kept piling in more and more tools. I still use these tools every day.
You are now Culinary Director at the Ebrington Hotel in Derry, Northern Island. What is a culinary director?
A culinary director is a visionary of where we are today and what we could be. It’s about getting the right direction for that establishment. How do you create a foundation you can build upon? My job is to build something that is of great heritage but of great comfort to the guests and, most of all, a great experience.
You were at Lough Erne Resort in Ireland for 17 years before your present position at the Ebrington Hotel in Northern Ireland. Were you also serving high-end cuisine at Lough Erne?
There were seven different eating areas within that resort, which included a fine-dining restaurant. The execution had to be top notch, especially by world standards. It doesn’t just take two or three years to build a team. Some people that come just never buy into the concept; for them, it’s just a job. My job was to create great people who believed in my vision and wanted to do something that was different from any other hotel.
What was your vision?
My vision was, number one, when people came, they would get an experience of Northern Ireland that was unlike anywhere else, with traditional breads served with local butter, beautifully displayed. Welcoming the guests to the hotel was the biggest thing. It’s all about the welcome. When you go out for food, it’s always about the company. Company is number one. Some people would say food is the first thing, but it’s not. Once you have good food and you’ve got the great company, your day will just be enhanced dramatically.
The gifts were the goods from the garden, whether it was the rhubarb crumble or rhubarb tarts or blackberry or blueberry jam. Goodies were always given back because they were powered by the heart. I think everything I was taught as a child – love and care and respect – is what you should do with people. Respecting and being kind to people reflects very much into the cooking, because your cooking is all about what you put on a plate. You don’t need to meet the chef, because he shows who he is by everything he puts on the plate: whether the ingredients are fresh or not and the design of the actual plate itself. You can nearly tell what kind of a kitchen it is: the meat is beautifully sliced and cooked meticulously.
How do you describe your cuisine?
Modern Irish cuisine. I worked in France and dealt with what modern French was; I worked with some great British chefs, I worked in America, but what is cuisine? I live here. I buy local butter. I buy flour from Belfast. The salt is Irish Sea Salt, the sugar is from Dublin. The beef is local. I bring all these ingredients to my kitchen. What I do is modern Irish food with the great skills that I’ve learned over the years from all the amazing chefs with whom I’ve worked.
What does it mean to be a great chef?
You need a clean kitchen to begin with, the same way an Irish dancer needs a clean floor on which to dance. You need to fill empty fridges with fresh food. Fresh produce always shines above something that is old.
Why did you leave Lough Erne and come to Ebrington?
During COVID I got a taste of what it was to be off for the first time in my life and have time with my partner, time with nature, time with the garden. I’d spent all my life working. I planned to semi-retire when I turned 55 and when I did turn 55, it was time. I had employed great people and eventually moved them up the ranks so there would be no big difference when I left. And the establishment has moved on to bigger and better things of which I am just so proud. I am a firm believer of giving as much as you can to everyone. Don’t be a taker. It’s a gift to give. And it’s a great thing for your soul to be able to give as much as possible, because you will eventually go on to bigger and better things yourself. The secret is to give, but not expect it back.
What is the best meal you’ve ever had?
I’ve had many great experiences of incredible meals, but my best was a meal that influenced me because of the people around me; that was with Alice Waters, because it made me understand what simplicity of food was all about. Before I left, Alice treated me to dinner. She’s an iconic person not because she’s famous, but because she’s such a humanist, a person of great vision, greatness to do with the quality of food, but, most of all, of the journey of what you should do to get to something of greatness. She was willing to share that, and I just soaked it in like a sponge. I remember writing in my diary, “It has taken me 10 years to find out what simplicity really means. Taking the best of local ingredients, cooking it as little as possible, and serving it with great skill.”
What was the difference between the other chefs you worked for in America and Alice Waters?
At the very beginning, as I was trying to learn, I wanted to cook fancy food, to see how much more I could put onto the plate. When I worked with Jean-Louis Palladin, it was very fancy and he was a very hard taskmaster. Then, he got me my position at Le Cirque in New York. It was quite incredible. One day we were doing lunch, and one of the one of the waiters said, “Come quick!” He pulled the curtain slightly and said, “Do you see who’s at that table? I was a very naive Irishman and said, “Who?” He told me there were three former American presidents having lunch. I knew I was cooking for great people.
Then when I went to San Francisco. Julia Child had influenced me to go and speak to Alice Waters and try to get a position. I had already tried and had been refused. It was thanks to the power of Julia Child that I was able to get in. I went from Le Cirque, with all the chandeliers and gold, to a place with a picket fence where everything was made of wood. I loved everything about it. And I was privileged because I had the skills rather than having no skills and wanting to be there. I could work well and execute well.
What is your advice for aspiring chefs?
To be the best, you must work with the best because they will influence you to be the best that you can be.
You used to be a champion dancer, and you’ve said that dancing is similar to cooking. How?
Irish dancing taught me precision. When the curtains open, it’s no different than food: it’s about performance, execution. You’ve done your homework and your preparation. Your uniform is immaculate. In dance, each tap is so important. It’s precision, just like food. Each item has to be so hot, and it all has to work together. The same is true with dancing. It’s all about the beat, how you move every second.
What do you want your legacy to be?
That I was a good person, and I spent my time well on this earth, and that I was a giver.
Article by Margie Goldsmith, who filled her heart with Ireland. Thanks to www.Ireland.com •