NIALL McKenna’s journey to become one of Ireland’s leading chefs and restaurateurs began at De La Salle College in Andersonstown in the late 1980s. “We were the first boys’ school in Ireland to do what would have been called Home Economics,” he says, as we paid a visit back to his alma mater. “Bro Dominic was very much behind the move to introduce the subject but we didn’t have any cooking facilities in La Salle and had to go to Cross and Passion on the Glen Road. Out of our class I know five of us are still cooking and that’s where it all began. “When the school was putting on events at night, like prize-giving, we’d be in the cleaners' room next to Bro Dominic’s office cooking on an old gas hob. The cooking skills started in La Salle and I just knew I wanted to become a chef.” From those humble beginnings Niall went on to study professional cookery at Belfast Metropolitan College, before moving to London, where he spent 12 years training under Michelin-starred chefs including Nico Ladenis, Gary Rhodes and Marco Pierre White. On returning to Belfast he has gone on to open five restaurants with James Street and Waterman still going strong and a reincarnation of former favourite Hadskis on the horizon. This month he brings all that culinary knowhow and skill together as he launches his first cookbook ‘What’s It All About?’. “It’s one of my sayings: What’s it all about?” he laughs.”I started off with about 500 recipes and whittled them down to about 140 and they are ones that people are capable of doing. So, it’s 20 years, 140 recipes, five restaurants and one question – what’s it all about? “It’s simple food, done well with local produce.” Niall began working on the book during Covid when he had more time on his hands and says the recipes are easy to follow even though they are all dishes from his restaurants.
