Skilled kitchen staff a ‘must’ for gastropubs – Kevin Arundel
A wet-house cannot be turned into a gastropub without skilled kitchen staff. “If there’s no skill in the kitchen you can’t offer quality dining,” believes chef Kevin Arundel who’d worked in high-end restaurants and fine dining establishments for a number of years before opening the successful Chop House in Dublin three-and-a-half years ago.
Print9 October 2013
Kevin Arundel – “If there’s no skill in the kitchen you can’t offer quality dining”.
He was speaking at the recent Irish Pubs Global conference in the Burlington Hotel.
“You’ve got to pay for skilled kitchen staff,” he emphasised, “You have to buy the best products locally too.”
That should not prove a problem on this island. Kevin pointed out that Ireland is the biggest producer of organic Irish salmon in the world and this should be highlighted along with telling the story of the food, the beer or the gin brands etc.
But he’s also prepared to go abroad for the best. For example he flies in the foie gras on the menu at The Chop House while at the same time offering 30 different Irish whiskies on the pub’s shelves “… because people want it”.
He also offers four premium Irish lagers on tap in addition to Guinness and Heineken.
He even facilitates customers who want to buy just one single oyster to taste them.
“It gives you more unique things to serve to the customer with a story to them,” he explained to the IPG delegates.
Brand loyalty, not cut-price, is the route to pursue, he stressed.
“You’ll make more profit and you’ll have better customers.”
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