MEET OUR NEWEST MICHELIN STARS
PREPARE for your appetites to be whetted – but you may need to wait to get a table in these top Irish establishments, as they’ve been announced as additions to the latest Michelin Guide!
Cooking up exquisite cuisine to make the grade are Dublin restaurants Mae and Chapter One by Mickael Viljanen, as well as Stock in Belfast.
Chef Gráinne O’Keefe said it is ‘amazing’ that her restaurant Mae, in Ballsbridge, Dublin 4, has been added to the list and that she and her team plan to celebrate with a bottle of bubbly.
She said: ‘We’ve only been open for two months so even just to be
‘I’m really proud of all the team’
included in the guide with all these amazing restaurants is a huge achievement. I’m just really proud of all the team and all the hard work they’ve put in.’
Mae, which is named after Ms O’Keefe’s late grandmother, serves modern Irish cuisine. It collaborates with a wine-tasting shop, The French Paradox, which is downstairs from the restaurant, to serve high-quality wine pairings with its food.
As Mae is a very small, intimate venue, Ms O’Keefe said she is ‘really looking forward to restrictions being lifted and being able to welcome more people at the restaurant’, as at the moment they can only offer six tables at a time.
Danny Millar, the head of Stock restaurant in Belfast, is also ‘over the moon about’ at being added to the Michelin Guide, especially after how ‘grim’ things have been for the hospitality industry during the pandemic.
He is hopeful that the combination of being name-checked by what he calls ‘the most recognised guide in the world’ and restrictions being eased for international and European travellers will lead to more bookings for the restaurant.
Stock’s focus is on using local produce; Mr Millar said its location in St George’s Market means customers know where their food is sourced. ‘You can sit there in the market and have a nice bit of grilled fish caught from the guys down below,’ he said.
The third Irish restaurant to be added to the list is Chapter One by Mickael Viljanen in Dublin.
He made his name and reputation at the two-Michelin-star restaurant The Greenhouse, which he left earlier this year.
The Finnish chef took over Chapter One from Ross Lewis.
The restaurant, which uses classic French techniques to create ‘bold’ and ‘daring’ dishes, said it is ‘very happy to have been included in the guide and will await the guide’s ratings when they are released’.
The annual Michelin Guide distinctions for 2022 – including Michelin stars – will be unveiled at an annual launch ceremony. Until then, new additions to the list will be published on the last Wednesday of every month.