AS HEAD CHEF in one of Dublin’s most noteworthy restaurants, Ciaran Sweeney is a name that you’ll often here being talked about. It’s no surprise that his ears are burning these days with Forest & Marcy always ranking high among critics’ and punters’ favourites.
Ciaran has had an exceptional career so far. He started in two-Michelin-starred Le Champignon Sauvage in Cheltenham, and has maintained the standard ever since.
His versions of traditional dishes in Forest & Marcy highlight new, complex flavour combinations and the best of Irish produce.
“When I’m creating dishes, I am definitely ingredient driven. I’m finding things more and more around Ireland that are stunning products and thinking of how can I do this or that with it.
“Then I start looking, if I want to develop a dish further, to pick out a classic Irish dish or combination and look at how I can break it down or put my own twist on it. I am more about the flavour combinations that people aren’t used to and putting them together, and it works really well. For example adding a bit of bitterness into food that Irish tend not to know.”
“I grew up with a sort of food culture around me I suppose, but I didn’t know any different because that was the way it was. My grandfather growing spuds at the side of the house, using seaweed, going fishing, seeing my grandparents making homemade butter…
“They weren’t doing it for a fad or because it was trendy, it was a way of life, survival.”
“When you start to you delve into your career and your passion you realise, this is what I want.
“Looking back you think, ‘Wow I didn’t realise at the time how significant this was’ and as your knowledge starts to deepen as you learn more you appreciate those things.”
“I used to photograph all of my dishes and then I came away from it a bit. It just didn’t really appeal to me anymore. I just thought that sometimes you are capturing something that changes week to week. It’s how we cook now, nothing really ever stays the same. Maybe concepts, ideas and techniques, but the dish can develop.
“Something that’s an idea one week can be a completely different idea the following week.”
“You’ll see Instagram photos sometimes of dishes and you go into the restaurant and it’s not quite the way it was. So my preferred photos of my food at the minute are the ones I find when I go onto Instagram and I search for Forest & Marcy or my name and see people’s photos that they’ve put up of dishes that they’ve eaten when they were in.”
“I think social media can be important for building up a portfolio or for even recording stuff because it’s hard to remember every single thing you’ve done, so in that way it’s good to have a record of it.
“When we’re typing up recipes and methods to record them too, it is good to attach a photo to it so you can remember how you plated it.”
“I like Andy Hayler’s Instagram account. He’s the restaurant critic for Elite Traveler Magazine. He was in Dublin there recently. I like his stuff because it is honest. It’s clean and to the point. There is no b***s*** about it. He’ll post a photo of a stunning plate of food he’s about to eat and then there will be a caption underneath it describing it and that’s it.
“I also like to follow Rene Redzepi from Noma because the videos they post are very interesting. Sometimes he’ll be explaining something so unique that you’ll have never heard of it or known existed. From a learning perspective, that sort of stuff is great.”
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