Doing the new thing

Michael Deane’s protégé, Danni Barry stormed into local headlines in 2015 when she helped her uber-successful employer to realise his long-cherished ambition of regaining a Michelin Star. Danni, who is head chef at Eipic in Belfast, spoke to Russell Campbell…

Thirty-year-old Danni Barry found herself thrust into the limelight in 2015 when the Belfast restaurant at which she is head chef secured a coveted Michelin Star.

Eipic, in Howard Street, is the newest of seven stylish eateries owned by acclaimed local chef Michael Deane who himself held a Michelin Star for a remarkable 12 years – a feat that no restaurant on the island has ever repeated.

In fact, Northern Ireland claimed two Stars during last year’s round of awards, the other going to Stephen Toman and Alain Kerloc’h’s OX restaurant, also in Belfast.

Danni is only the second female Irish chef to secure the industry’s most sought-after accolade – the other was Myrtle Allen, head chef at Ballymaloe House in Co. Cork, who won a Star in 1975.

Declaring herself “delighted” with the recognition, Danni said:

“It’s a big personal achievement, I’m happy for myself and for the team here too,” she told LCN before Christmas. She also admitted to feeling “knackered” since news of the Michelin Star broke in September:

“It’s been a lot busier since we got it, but it’s given me confidence in what we’re doing here and what we can build. I encourage the staff to try and be better every day because we’re not doing the old thing, we’re doing the new thing now and we have confidence that what we’re doing is right.”

Danni originally came to work for Michael Deane when she was just 17. A part-time dishwashing job at home in Mayobridge had been enough to convince the teenager that a career in the restaurant trade was right for her:

“I’d never really thought about it before that, I was generally just going through the motions of school I think,” she recalls.

Danni began attending college in Newry where she attained her level two NVQ in cooking. As part of her studies, she undertook work experience in Belfast with Michael Deane and his head chef at the time, Ricky Hay:

“They offered me a job almost straight away, I’d only been there for a week or two,” she says with a smile. “I was only 17 at the time but I was keen to learn and I took the position as commis chef.

“It was very demanding and I wouldn’t have known what a Michelin Star was back then. I just saw Deane’s as the best place to be if I was going to work at that level.

“Michael was there and Monto Mansour was the pastry chef. They just took me under their wing, they had a lot of time for and that’s how I learned. I stuck at it and had to work hard, that was all there was to it.”

That was September 2003 and as Danni’s embarked on her first Christmas in the trade, she remembers how busy the restaurant was:

“The brasseries was downstairs at that time and Michael was upstairs and any chance I got to go upstairs and do thing for them, I took it,” she says.

After four years with Michael, the urge to see something of the world overcame Danni and she embarked on an extensive working tour, travelling to Australia, South Africa, New Zealand and locations across Europe.

“I just wanted to see everything and go everywhere and do everything,” she remarks.

Eventually, she settled in GB where she began working at Simon Rogan’s L’Enclume – now widely acclaimed as the leading restaurant in the UK with five AA Rosettes. At the age of 26, Danni was then appointed to head up the kitchen at Simon Rogan’s other venue, Rogan & Co in Cartmel where she remained until Michael Deane persuaded her to come back to Northern Ireland and work for him again in his newest and most sophisticated restaurant, Eipic.

“I was thinking about coming back anyway at that stage and he heard about that and got in touch,” says Danni. “He told me he was undertaking a massive refurbishment at Howard Street, he was doing something new and he wanted me to come back and look after it for him.”

She brought a lot of what she learned from Simon Rogan back to Belfast – Danni says he challenged the way that she’d been taught to cook and how she thought about the produce she used and how she used it:

“I would say that the way I do things now is totally different from Michael,” she admits. “It’s not his style of cooking at all. But he is happy enough to step back not get involved, he’s old school, but he sees that what we do here works.”

Pointing out that Michael visits each of his sites every day, Danni says that he doesn’t have time to be in the kitchen aswell:

“To get the business to the level it’s at, he’s had to take a step back,” she adds. “He’s been massively supportive and the best thing that he could have done was to step back and say, “There you go, it’s up to you””.”

Predictably, perhaps, business has increased quite markedly at Eipic since its recognition by the Michelin Guide. And Danni sees the accolade as making a considerable contribution to a general upswing in the mood of the trade locally:

“Belfast is really excited about everything now,” she says. “The restaurants are all busy and we’ve certainly seen a big difference in our own business. The confidence is back, we’re doing something a bit different here and OK, some people will take a look at the menu and decide to go to the Meat Locker instead, they know what they want, but after the Michelin Star, we get people coming here because they know the standard that the restaurant is at.”

She does admit that making sure Eipic retains its Star status will be “another thing” but she is already focused on the challenge and says that constant improvement of service levels at the prestigious venue is a priority:

“I want to see this as one of Belfast’s most established restaurants,” she says. “I like to think it’s not a flash in the pan. I want to see how we can build on the Star.”

As for the future, continuous development of the offering at Eipic is a clear objective. Danni wants to see the restaurant become much more “self-contained” and able to thrive independently of the kudos exuded by its acclaimed neighbours. And she’s focused on developing the quality of service for diners, more at-table service, increased interaction with the kitchen and so on.

Eventually, Danni admits, she might like to move on and get involved in a project of her own. She comes from rural roots and says that whatever she does, it’s likely to be in a rural setting rather than the city and have sustainability at its heart.

“We have a big farm at home so maybe I’ll open a farm shop,” she says.