Culinary Director at SOLE Seafood & Grill and FIRE Steakhouse & Bar Richie Wilson shares his life in food, from his earliest memories to his favourite flavours and culinary inspirations.
Richie Wilson has been working in the food industry for over two decades now, having trained under some of Ireland’s greatest chefs along the way. Culinary Director at FIRE Steakhouse & Bar and SOLE Seafood & Grill, this is a chef with a real passion for providing top-quality food to the masses.
Richie’s philosophy is one that honours sustainability and local Irish producers. He aims to connect customers with the wealth of amazing Irish ingredients on offer from both sea and land. He takes pride in following the sea-to-SOLE and farm-to-FIRE experience through. Here he shares his life in food.
What are your earliest memories of food?
My earliest memories of food are most certainly the reason I became a chef. Meal times in general were always an important time in my home growing up and on special occasions when guests were coming for dinner it was even more important. Dinner was always at 5:30pm and we all sat together (eight altogether, Mam, Dad and six children). Thinking back, it had to be together, cooking for that number every day must have been a huge challenge for my mother, let alone if we were all eating at different times, but I know it was really about us sitting together.
My mother is a fantastic cook and when people came over, she went to great lengths to do something special. A beautifully laid table was prepared the evening beforehand, I loved this. Time spent making an effort to welcome people to share a meal. There was always baking too, desserts are the last memory of a meal and Mam was fantastic at them, she still makes the most heavenly apple tarts. Pastry skills that I am sure she had gained from her Mam too. I have so many fond memories of making pastry with my Mam and my Granny. Cold hands were the key when rubbing butter through the flour. Or something as simple as knocking the cream from the top of the milk bottle over freshly picked raspberries and strawberries from my Grandad’s garden, heaven.
Food was high on the agenda of holidays too, whether it was nuts and chocolate for long walks, caving and snorkelling or shooting rabbits for the evening’s BBQ. Holidays abroad brought new foods, which I am certain is why I am so fond of French food and how they take so much time over a meal, a time to share stories or just how your day has been. The French know how to enjoy meal time!
How would you describe your relationship with food?
I would say that it has always been a relationship based on true love with strong foundations ensuring it lasts. How could it not be? Food is the centre of all our lives. Whether that’s in the form of a celebratory meal, that one dish you turn to when you are feeling down or under the weather or just filling the basic need for energy on any given day. Food keeps the relationship fresh too, always offering something new and exciting. Like any relationship it hasn’t been without its ups and downs, things don’t always go right, particularly in a professional kitchen. But understanding each other’s needs gives the opportunity to get things right and continue on the right path, just like a marriage I suppose.
What was the first meal you learned to cook?
Delia Smith was the “celebrity chef” of my formative years, she and Anton Mosimann with his chef toque hat, I wanted their skills and his presence. I would watch shows and try to make their dishes, particularly Delia who really did show everyone the basics, I think she even had a book called How to Cook, and the TV series to go along with it. I have a vivid memory of making the bread from Blue Peter (it was far too salty). When my Mam showed me how to make garlic butter, I put it on everything and couldn’t get enough.
Those and making pastry with my Mam or Granny were the first dishes I recall making but it wasn’t until college that I made entire meals. I recall the first year of college helping my Mam prepare Christmas dinner, between making terrines and pâtés I’m sure she would have preferred I just helped prepare it as it had always been for so many years. Today I still prepare Christmas dinner exactly how she did or at least to the best of my memory.
Tell us about your journey to becoming a chef.
The first kitchen I ever worked in was The Gresham Hotel. I already knew this was the road I wanted to travel and my parents even asked a neighbour’s son who was a chef to come over and talk about just how difficult a job it was, but he really made me want it all the more. Peeling grapes for breakfast in The Gresham (a sort of hazing from the chef ) didn’t put me off either. That kitchen was huge and always buzzing. It had all the sections represented, many of which are outsourced today.
The Garde Manger chef Paddy would be brought pint glasses of tea from the ladies in the dining room—probably to get a bit of heat into him from all the time spent in and out of fridges—and all the chefs would come down to his station throughout the day to get meats and cold cuts to bring to their own stations. He was without doubt the busiest chef in that kitchen and would make wedding cakes in his own time. Food seemed to be his life.
From there I worked in a few small restaurants before heading to Athlone for college and the placement restaurants required. From there on to a scholarship in a culinary arts university in the US. When I returned, I focused on working in higher end restaurants, those with a reputation for delivering the best, making a conscious effort to garner experience and not worry about how much any of them paid. That’s when I truly fell in love with food. I recall thinking I would do it for free, my whole life centred around the kitchen. I didn’t have the same social life as my friends because I was always working when everyone else was out enjoying themselves, but I was part of the industry that provided those times for people and I loved that. Without a doubt, though, I could not have done that without Sue, my girlfriend at the time but now my wife and mother to our three beautiful children.
Like any chef worth their salt, when I had gained the knowledge and experience, I knew when it was time to step up a level in the ranks, take on more responsibility and eventually take charge of a kitchen. I wanted to put my own stamp on things, create dishes that I had imagined and not another chef’s thoughts. That all sounds like the journey was a very simple one but I think I have my rose-tinted spectacles on here because I know there were some very challenging days in those years.
What’s your go-to breakfast?
Breakfast these days is very different from years gone by. Back then I could eat anything and everything and not put an ounce of weight on, a grilled cheese sandwich was my favourite. These days it’s fruit and oat bars, but always coffee, there has to be copious amounts of coffee. My favourite breakfasts of all though are on my days off when I can prepare breakfast for the whole house, almost a la carte as they each like different things. I don’t think I will ever bring them all round to having lamb’s liver with breakfast but that is my absolute favourite, a mixed grill with super soft eggs. I love it.
If you’re impressing friends and family at a dinner party, what are you serving up?
Hard to say, I try to think about the meal time itself, who is coming and for what reason. If it’s something like Mother’s Day, I am trying to impress my Mam, cooking things I know she will like. Scallops to start with a beautiful Irish smoked black pudding. Lamb for main course but she likes the offal too so bringing a kidney in a long side loin and rack, giving layers to the dish. Then enlisting my daughter’s help to make desserts, an effort to give the same memories to my kids as I had, involving them in what is an event, showing them how to do it in the hope that someday they will be able to do it for themselves.
On other occasions I think of how I want to spend time with our guests. I prepare something slow cooked maybe, something forgiving of time that can be prepared and ready to go whenever we sit. A meal is so much more than just the food on, there’s no point in me preparing the most amazing meal if I don’t have time to sit and spend time together, creating the ambience. So, this type of meal could end up being more like a lamb shank than the more complex dish prepared for Mother’s Day. Canapés instead of a starter that I can have plated and ready to go. Either way, I always feel a certain amount of pressure when someone is coming to dinner. I feel there is an expectation for me to put up something amazing, but my wife says that’s all in my own head!
Who is your culinary inspiration?
Without any doubt, my mother was that initial spark of inspiration, and since then there have been many more. Rick Stein, I always felt showed his audience just how in love with food he is, his knowledge and understanding of the produce and producers along with his skills were all I aspired to. I mentioned Anton Mosimann before, his autobiography and the writings of Anthony Bourdain were a huge source of inspiration. Paul Bocuse’s lifetime of Michelin stars, Paul Flynn’s drive to produce heart-warming and real food, Ferrán Adria’s pushing the limits of molecular gastronomy. All of these and many more inspire me on a daily basis, even from the vastness of Instagram I find inspiration throughout.
What would your last meal on earth be?
That is extraordinarily difficult to answer, the food I love changes with my humour on a daily basis so it probably has more to do with things other than food. I think if I was asked this same question years ago I would have said, foie gras or something equally extravagant or pretentious but these days I feel my favourite meals are with my family, something we are all enjoying and sharing together. If my wife and children were sharing a steaming hot pot of Moule A La Crème (which we all love), moped up with fresh baguette and washed down with a cold glass of Chablis premier cru, I would leave this earth as a very happy man.
What’s your go-to comfort food?
The thing about being a chef is, you don’t have a huge urge to eat the food you are preparing in the restaurants from one end of the week to the other. Soups and stews whenever I’m feeling under the weather, mince stew and mash potatoes has it all. There are other times that I really love to make smash burgers, simple and quickly prepared, but done right they can knock your socks off.
What’s the go-to quick meal you cook when you’re tired and hungry?
If I am tired and hungry I’m not preparing a meal, I’ll more than likely eat the contents of the fridge while standing with its door open. A proper grilled sandwich though, if I’m only making something for myself, that’s it. I would give it a lot of TLC, using the flat top grill, buttering inside and out, grilling to crunchy perfection and oozing with molten cheese. It could be cheddar, ham and onion or a Cajun tuna and Swiss, either way there must be molten cheese.
What is one food or flavour you cannot stand?
Easiest question so far. Walnuts, I just don’t like them at all. I would say I love all food and will certainly try anything, but walnuts I have never warmed to even if they are covered in chocolate, that only makes them palatable for me!
Hangover cure?
Ramen, it is the perfect cure. The comfort of the hot broth, layers of flavour (inevitably very different from the night before) and the spice that helps to sweat all the alcohol away. Perfect.
Sweet or savoury?
Savoury without a doubt, I would go for cheese instead of dessert, bacon instead of cereal, crisps over chocolate everyday of the week.
Fine dining or pub grub?
Again, it depends on my humour but I think I would probably say fine dining. It is such a treat to be on the other side of the dining experience. I am not against pub grub at all, but I love all of the attention you get in a fine dining restaurant along with well executed dishes.
Favourite restaurant in Ireland?
Very hard to choose between my two babies FIRE and SOLE — but you probably mean other than those! I have been lucky enough to try so many great restaurants in Ireland it would be impossible to choose one. My most recent meal was Glover’s Alley. Andy is producing some amazing food with incredible service and knock out wine pairings.
Best coffee in Ireland?
It’s Coffee Angel for me, I am over and back between FIRE and SOLE all the time and these guys are on South Anne Street, so it’s easy to drop in on the way past. Great coffee.
What are your thoughts on the Irish foodie scene?
It really has come a long long way. With so many influences coming from around the world the Irish food scene has never been better, from every angle. The producers in this country are competing on a global scale now, cheese makers, beef producers and butchers, oyster farming, arable farming and so many more are all contributing to raise the bar. From those amazing producers all the way up to some astonishing chefs, food trucks, and outlets we do have a vibrant and diverse scene. We now realise just how amazing our local produce is and we can still encapsulate Irish traditions alongside international influences.
What’s your favourite thing about cooking?
Instant gratification, putting all the time and effort into food and watching or hearing people enjoy it, that’s why we are here. Receiving praise for what you have made is an ego boost, looking across the restaurant at all those people enjoying themselves, that’s the buzz, that’s why we do it.
What does food — sitting down to a meal with friends, mindfully preparing a meal, nourishment, etc — mean to you?
I think I’ve answered this in the questions above really. I am a feeder, meals at home mean so much to me. Each week I prepare most of the dinners for the week on the same day as doing the “big shop”. It’s not that no one else can do it, my wife has gotten quite handy in the kitchen though she would say “you don’t get a dog and bark yourself.” I want to make sure my family is well fed with healthy food that they all enjoy and I have the skills to do that. If I have spent time on a meal that one of the kids doesn’t enjoy, I feel like I let them down. I won’t make that meal again or at least not when they are having it. Smiles all round and full tummies, that’s what I want and knowing it hasn’t come from some highly processed food sets me at ease.
Food for thought — What are some areas for improvement within the Irish food/restaurant/hospitality scene?
The single largest improvement required is enticing the future chefs and servers into the industry. It’s extraordinarily hard to find anyone with formal training these days. College costs money and without the promise of a decent wage to pay that back, it’s going to be difficult. When I attended college, it was paid for. In fact, I received a weekly grant while attending college, my uniforms and knives were all provided.
The government was working hard to supply the industry with staff both front and back of house, that’s just not there anymore and it’s at a time when it’s needed more than ever. Coupled with the expectations of becoming Gordon Ramsey, Jamie Oliver or a YouTube sensation the moment you step into a kitchen, staffing has become our biggest challenge.
After that is rising costs, beef prices have never been higher, produce in general is at an all-time high, wages are high (though in many ways I support this) and services are just astronomical at the moment. Reducing the VAT back to 9% would go a long way towards helping so many small businesses just to stay afloat now, it is hard to understand why it was increased at all and even more difficult to understand why the current government — who campaigned on a reduced VAT rate — haven’t done so already.
Chef’s kiss — Tell us about one standout foodie experience you’ve had recently.
We were in New York recently at Danny Meyer’s Manhattan restaurant, it was flawless. From beginning to end they didn’t miss a beat, with perfectly paired drinks (not just wine) to the single most amazing dessert I have ever had, they had it all down to perfection. The view was breathtaking, even at night, the service was friendly, understanding yet consummately professional and delivered by a happy team who clearly care, a balance that is truly hard to achieve. An enormous open kitchen allowed insight, though I had been positioned with my back to it as my wife always does so to ensure I give her at least some attention during the meal. Each dish was as exquisite as the next, a truly memorable meal experience.
Compliments to the chef — Now’s your chance to sing the praises of a talented chef, beloved restaurant or particularly talented foodie family member.
Through the course of my work I am blessed to be able to go and meet some of the amazing producers that supply us in the restaurants. Each time I do I realise that this passion exists right from the very beginning of the food journey. In Connemara the team in David Keane’s oyster farm spend many hours waist deep in icy cold water, turning bags, grading oysters, and braving the elements of the Irish winter to provide oysters to top restaurants around the world. This is a story repeated so many times across all of this country’s producers.
The one chef that I will always compliment for his devotion to Irish food, for his extraordinary mentorship and his outstanding contribution to the Irish food scene is Paul Flynn, owner and chef of The Tannery restaurant, an all round great guy and champion of Irish food.
Secret ingredient — What, in your estimation, makes the perfect dining experience?
I wish I knew! There isn’t just one thing. In FIRE and SOLE we look at every step of the journey with us from your reservation to your final goodbye and everything in between. Our approach to service and hospitality is about creating a positive and memorable experience for guests. When we prioritise employee well-being, genuine care, our team is happy – our guests can feel that. Service really is more about the technical execution, whereas hospitality is an emotional experience and that can only be given by those who care about the job.
We have focused far too long in this industry on providing a service but when we bring that on to actual hospitality we quickly realise the importance of the team and how they are feeling. We focus on the team’s well-being; a happy team will give better service and a true hospitality experience. Chefs are happiest when they are improving their knowledge, skills and have all the tools necessary to do their job. That includes providing them with the best produce possible, we either bring them to see the producers or the producer to us in order to give the chefs a better understanding of just what has gone into the particular product.
We make every effort to bring all of our team on the journey with us, training them on every aspect of the meal from our producers to cooking platforms, from vineyards to distilleries, knowledge is key. When we believe or have faith in the things we do, we stand behind it, supporting it and even champion it. Making every effort to ensure that it is one team working together whether that is in front of the guest or behind the stoves. Understanding each other’s roles ensures our team respects each other and the jobs they have to do. In this way we can deliver a truly memorable hospitality experience with great food and service.
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