Richard Corrigan

Don’t play with your food

t5m — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 17:09:23 +0000

Richard teaches his students not to complicate cooking. He tells them that if they get a beautiful lamb from North Wales, don’t stuff it with crab meat “thank you very much”, cook it simply with parley and garlic so you can taste the ingredients and so the core of the ingredient is recognisable.

It is important to have a reportoire with local suppliers, who provide a bespoke service which is key in his restaurant, he told t5m. He takes a liking to beef, beef that has been hanging for forty days and which has that marble and grain finish, something that large factories don’t do.

What’s in season we ask? Apparently, Richard is all about turbot, large plaice, British asparagus, and strawberries.

Sounds delicious!

Food revolution

t5m — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 17:05:29 +0000

At 21, Richard was promoted which was absolutely unheard of at the time. He was in charge of the meat and sauces section which he made sure was perfect, and at 27 he was promoted again and he managed seven people. He learnt it is important working as a team as opposed to working individually.

They catered “top notch”, smart, french-type food and Richard had flexibility with his menu, so much so that it was updated every two weeks. This was because it was printed inhouse unlike other restaurants at the time. An advocate for plastic bag cooking, which is “bashing” turbot, garlic, and lemon in a bag and then frying it, he always had the edge while others were catching up.

He would still buy English papers for the food news, and it was obvious that there was a food revolution taking place in Britain, and he was very much part of it, he told t5m.

Netherlands is a post office?

t5m — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 16:59:38 +0000

Richard left Ireland in 1982 for the Netherlands which was a massive turning point in his life. It was a time when Ireland was facing a civil war and upheaval and Holland was a place for people seeking refuge from persecution. He loved Holland, he liked their liberal attitude, their efficiency, their architecture, and he especially liked their European sense of “having a laugh” which was a bit boyish.

Holland was like a post office, he told t5m, everything had its place. He also liked the social responsibility the government had and how it ran the country. And to top it all off, Holland has great restaurants, most of which he worked for.

No excuses…

t5m — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 16:57:42 +0000

As a young chef, Richard stayed behind at night to make sure that the kitchen was gleaming for the next day. He was left with this task because he was the youngest and sometimes people took advantage of this. He would have to sharpen the knives and put the pots and pans back in the right place for the chefs.

He always keeps a mental diary of how he is going to attack any tasks, a discipline which he has perfected. He makes sure that he doesn’t bog himself down with so many things, instead he prefers to do one great thing by the end of the day.

You won’t see him with a to-do list, but minutes are taken at his management meetings and when he assigns his team a task, he expects it to be done by the following meeting…no excuses! And they’re always done.

Excellence begins at 60 hours per week

t5m — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 16:51:29 +0000

The Irish chef has won many culinary accolades including Outstanding London Chef at the London Restaurant Awards. He has also worked with many great European chefs who have all given him sound advice, he told t5m. All the chefs he worked for were tough guys, but so was Corrigan and he believed that having a backbone is the essence of true people.

Working on a farm, he was self-employed so he never had an ‘employee attitude’ and this is was partly the reason why he got promoted so early on in his career. He truly believes that excellence begins by working a sixty hour week!

A farmer’s son

t5m — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 16:49:23 +0000

Michelin-starred chef Richard Corrigan, hailing from a farmer’s background, always knew he wouldn’t inherit his father’s farm, as it was tradition that the eldest son would take over. However, as h is father was a chef in a local restaurant, and as he loved food and ate things like eel and wild salmon, he thought “why not cook food?” Afterall, they were already producing food so it would make sense to cook it aswell.

Richard’s attention to time management stems from a local farmer in Ireland who would wake up at 5.30am to take soil samples, ‘if you took his shovel you would put it back where you found it’, he told t5m. It’s about getting a job done quickly and effectively, an ethos which has stuck with him forever.

It’s important not to stray too far away from who you are and where you come from otherwise you’re living a false life, he told t5m.