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.
Niall McKenna back at De La Salle with Vice-Principal Michaella McAllister
“The hardest thing to do is the Belfast Bap because to do that in a household oven is difficult because of the heat.”
He says the Hadskis Bacon and Duck Egg is his favourite dish in the book. "It’s so rich and flavoursome," he says, "and then it puts you in mind of going to the Duke of York and having a couple of drinks."
What advice does he have for anyone who buys the book and attempts their first dish?
“Read the recipe before you do it, that’s the key. Get yourself all organised, get everything weighed out. Don’t try and do it all at the same time because you will just mess it up. That’s the secret of a good cookbook. Read it first, understand it and then start.
“These are all the recipes that we use every day in our restaurants, we haven’t changed them. Whether its James Street, Waterman and the new Hadskis-to-be.”
Chef Niall McKenna takes a closer look at a test print of his debut cookbook, What’s it all About?
But is he not concerned that regular customers will buy the book, discover his culinary secrets and as result cook the dishes at home and be less inclined to visit his restaurants?
“Good luck to them,” he laughs. “I still has another 500 recipes.”
What’s It All About? by Niall McKenna will be released on October 9. Priced £25, the cookbook will be available to purchase at James Street and Waterman, via the Waterman House website, and in selected local stockists including the Belfast Welcome Centre, Maven and JN Wines. Pre-orders are available now from www.waterman.house
