Dishing the dirt:
Go easy on the sauces says celebrity chef

CELEBRITY chef Antony Worrall Thompson had some sage advice for Irish foodies at last weekend's Taste of Dublin festival — stop smothering your food with sauces.

The TV chef, star of BBC show Ready, Steady, Cook, believes we’re a little too enthusiastic about our fancy food.

Speaking to the Evening Herald, he said: “You’re clued in more than you used to be anyway. You can’t be that bad because I married one of you”, he added — a reference to his Dublin-born wife Jacinta.

“You’ve got wonderful natural produce here but you keep on trying to smother it with with sauces.

“I believe food should be very simple and genuine, but a lot of people seem to have these very ‘chefy’ ideas.”

In Dublin to treat food fans to his culinary delights, he remarked: “Irish people are very much into their food nowadays, far more so than 20 years ago when you only wanted the meat and two veg.

“Now you’ve got some great restaurants. I’ve been to Chapter One, and I was in Bon Appetit last night. I go down to the south a lot. There’s wonderful food around Cork.”

We now boast four Michelinstarred restaurants in Dublin, but does Britain’s star chef think they’re up to international standards?