An eye for the seasons
Chef Danny Millar (44), has worked his way up from humble beginnings in west Belfast to become one of the most familiar faces in Ulster hospitality…
Growing up in a busy family with seven siblings vying for their share at mealtimes helped Danny Millar developed an affinity for food from an early age.
Reared in Belfast’s New Lodge district, he studied catering at the former College of Business Studies and got his first real taste of work as a commis chef at the Strand Restaurant in Belfast at the age of 16. He worked there a couple of nights a week while he studied and recalls being put to work out on the fire escape where he peeled potatoes and prepared vegetables.
At 17, Danny began to work full-time at the Portaferry Hotel, where he stayed for a year, before head chef, Aaron Sullivan left for a job at a large pub on Guernsey, taking Danny with him. The pair worked at The White Hart for a couple of years and Danny, who is still close friends with Aaron, remembers his mentor as “a very passionate chef who showed me a lot”.
After two years at The White Hart, Danny was off to Germany and a three-year stint at the hotel in the Black Forest region. He worked his way up through the ranks until he was chef in the sauce section and recalls the experience in a positive light:
“It was great training,” he says. “The kitchen itself was very regimented and they did a lot of old school cooking.”
By the time he was in his mid-20’s, Danny was back in NI, working for the late Robbie Millar at Shanks, where he stayed for a couple of years before returning to Portaferry to take up his first head chef’s position at The Narrows, where he stayed for three years.
He admits that he likes to stay long enough at each venue to see the seasons out at least once:
“As I get older, I become more aware of the fact that things have to be grown,” he remarks. “As a young chef, you just expect things to be there, but the more you work with nature and see how stuff grows, the more you appreciate the farmers and fishermen and see that our role is really only secondary. The most important thing is the raw ingredients that come in through the door.”
Periods at Benners Hotel in Dingle and Paul Rankin’s former Cayenne restaurant in Belfast followed before Danny met Ronan and Jenny Sweeney and became partners with them in the Balloo Inns group around a decade ago. He’s now chef director across all three venues in the group – The Parson’s Nose, The Poacher’s Pocket and Balloo House.
In that capacity, he’s become a familiar face on the local culinary circuit – he has won the NI regional section of the Great British Menu for two consecutive years; he was named Best Chef in Ireland at the Restaurant Association of Ireland Awards in 2010 and his work with the Balloo Inns group has seen the reputation of all three venues soar – The Poacher’s Pocket at Lisbane is the current holder of the LCN Pub Food of the Year title.
To celebrate Northern Ireland’s Year of Food and Drink, Danny recently joined Michelin-starred chef, Tom Kitchin and a group of students from the South-Eastern Regional College in the kitchen at Balloo House to prepare a five-course tasting menu using locally-sourced ingredients.
It was one of a series of exclusive events planned at Balloo House this year during which a total of four Michelin-starred guest chefs will produce unique menus to showcase Northern Ireland’s finest local produce.
As for Danny himself, he’s full of enthusiasm for the future. Standards in the industry are better than ever, he says, but rather than look towards expansion, he says that the priority for the business at present is consolidation and improvement:
“I think we all work very hard and we really want to be sure that the customers and the staff are happy, that’s really what my job is,” he adds. “At the moment though, we are very happy with our three venues and I think we will be happy for things to stay that way for now.”
