Star Man

Michael Deane is one of the most recognisable faces of Ulster hospitality. Proprietor of seven diverse restaurants in Belfast, he shares the credit for transforming the city’s food culture and holds the record for the longest-lived of Ireland’s Michelin Stars. He talks to Russell Campbell…

There were two defining moments in the life of Michael Deane.

The first came when, as a still-green chef in his mid-20s, he struggled to the head of a four-year waiting list for kitchen staff at Mayfair’s Michelin-starred Dorchester Hotel and finally took his place as a first commis chef under Anton Mosimann.

The second milestone in the career of the man who was to become perhaps, the most recognisable face in Northern Ireland’s modern hospitality industry came on his return to the province, when he and his entrepreneurial cousin, Haydn Deane, lifted the shutters on their seminal new restaurant, Deane’s on the Square, in 1993.

These days, of course, Michael Deane is a household name. Credited with revolutionising eating out in Northern Ireland, he held a Michelin Star for a remarkable 12 years – a feat that no restaurant in Ireland has ever repeated.

His name is now above the door at seven stylish and individual eateries in Belfast and although he no longer boasts a Michelin Star, his reputation for serving quality contemporary cuisine at a manageable price has won him followers at all levels and secured a lucrative future for his brand.

Deane’s on the Square wasn’t his first foray onto the culinary scene after his return to Northern Ireland. He’d worked for a time in the restaurant at Belfast Castle and although he speaks favourably of the venue, it’s clear from his manner that after his years in Mayfair, the mundane nature of his new employment had left him cold.

Helen’s Bay was his escape and he and Haydn took to the challenge with enthusiasm, quickly establishing the new restaurant as a bright beacon in a country where fine dining was still considered a black art.

It’s at this point that he first mentions Paul Rankin, the chef whose remarkable celebrity seem to dog Michael’s early years, an arch-Nemesis whose own success seemed at times to throw Michael’s achievement into shadow. Yet Michael has nothing bad to say of the man:

“I think he must have come home from London on the flight before mine,” he says with a smile. “He bought this run-down old Asian restaurant in Belfast called Arabian Nights, he got it for buttons and people said that he was mad, then he opened Roscoff’s and turned the city upside down.”

Michael admits that when he drives past the building on Shaftsbury Square today he gets a lump in his throat.

“Perhaps we didn’t always get on terribly well together, I don’t know,” he says. “Certainly there was professional rivalry, but I can tell you, he really turned things around. I’m a big fan, he did a lot of good for Northern Ireland and none of us would be where we are today if it wasn’t for Paul taking the risks and opening those doors.”

In those early days, of course, there were three chefs in the vanguard of Ulster’s culinary renaissance. Referring back to the Helen’s Bay era again, Michael recalls with a smile:

“The only problem I really had at that time was a guy called Robbie Millar.”

Robbie, who died in a car accident at Holywood in 2005, had trained under Paul at Roscoff’s and opened his own restaurant – Shanks, at the Clandeboye Estate – in 1994, winning a Michelin Star two years later.

Michael remembers it all well:

“Robbie came along with this big machine, he was backed by Lady Dufferin, he had 15 chefs in the kitchen, the whole PR machine. I was working away at Helen’s Bay in the kitchen with Ryan McArdle, Chris Bell and Stephen Brothers and it just felt like he’d put our lights out. He hadn’t, of course, but that’s the way it felt.”

The kitchen at Deane’s on the Square went into meltdown in January 1996 when a telephone query from the Michelin Star judging panel seemed to corroborate rumours that one of the coveted accolades was bound for Northern Ireland that year.

“In the end it was Robbie that got it”, says Michael, “but it only made us work all the harder. I lived in the kitchen for a year and we got the Star in 1997 which we held onto in Belfast until 2011…But it was hard to work under the shadow of Robbie. There’s not a bad word I could say about Shanks, but that name just had power behind it, it cast the rest of us in its shadow.”

These days, Michael and his wife, the former UTV presenter, Kate Smith, have his hands full with a thriving portfolio of diverse eateries. In his traditional spot at Howard Street he now has three restaurants – Eipic, Love Fish and The Meat Locker – after he took over the former Equinox furniture store a year ago to facilitate a £750,000 expansion and created 30 new jobs in the process.

At nearby Bedford Street, he has the Deli Bistro and the Deli Vin Café; Deane and Decano on the Lisburn Road and Deanes at Queen’s just across from the university. The latter is his latest project. He and his wife – the former UTV presenter, Kate Smith – are currently focused on a £350,000 refurbishment project that will see the popular venue transformed.

Located in what was once Queen’s old Common Rooms, the building used to be home to the ill-fated Varsity restaurant before Michael agreed to take it on. That was seven years ago and they’ve been in business ever since:

“Now we feel like it’s time to do it again,” he says. “This was basically a restaurant with two private dining rooms. When we’re finished in early February it’s going to have a lovely new foyer area, a new bar offering, the private dining rooms and the restaurant.”

Head chef Chris Fearon will also have a new Spanish oven that will allow him to offer an innovative new charcoal menu featuring beef, chicken and pork.

A new totem pole outside the restaurant will bear the legend, ‘Deane’s at Queen’s, where BT9 begins…’

“The challenge has always been to keep all the balls in the air,” remarks Michael. “I always feel like I’ve got something I need to do. At the moment, I need to get Eipic to where it needs to be in the marketplace. I have to make sure that Love Fish is able to sustain the turnover that it’s doing.”

Michael says that he wants to get his Michelin Star back at Eipic:

“There are no Stars in Northern Ireland at present, that’s a big omission and it’s embarrassing for us,” he adds. “Somebody has to deliver. You can have as many Mickey Mouse accolades as you like, Michelin will always be the benchmark and it always has been. We had one for 12 years and I don’t think anyone will beat that, although I hope they do.”

He goes on:

“I don’t have grand ambitions. I just want to be healthy, I want to feel good and look after my family. I want to make sure that my son gets through school and that’s he able to do what he wants to do, but I know that this whole thing can turn around overnight. The wolf can come to anyone’s door, whether it’s your health or the bank, I just take every day as it comes and I try to enjoy it.

Michael and Kate have one son, Marco, who is aged 14 and in conversation with Michael, it’s clear that Marco’s future is foremost in his thoughts:

“The game plan would be to get to 55, then maybe bring the staff more into the business,” he explains. “Involve them more in the finances and maybe look towards a management buy-out, perhaps they could own 49 per cent of the business.

“I don’t want to do this forever but it really depends on what Marco wants to do, if he wants to be a big part of the business then that’s fine, he’ll still need people to help him.”

As for himself, Michael says that if he wasn’t a chef he’d probably be working front-of-house:

“I love people, I love being around them. I was never smart enough to be a brain surgeon or a lawyer, I just wanted to get away from school and do something that nobody else was doing.

“A few years down the line I’d like to think that my business will be much the same as it is today. It needs to be a certain size in order to sustain things. I like a nice lifestyle, a nice car, nice holidays. I think there has to be some reward for all of this when it comes to the end of the day…”