From Cashel Gardens To A Room Of His Own

Kevin Thornton's food education did not begin in a kitchen. It began in the earth. As a young man in Cashel he worked in the vegetable gardens of the Cashel Palace Hotel^[1][4].

He learned about meat the hard way too, working in an abattoir^[1][2]. Over the years he also worked on farms, at a French vineyard and as a photographer^[2]. Every job taught him something about where food comes from.

Galway And Lyon

He graduated in fine cooking from Galway Regional Technical College^[1]. Then he travelled through Europe and ended up in one of the most famous kitchens in the world, Restaurant Paul Bocuse near Lyon^[1][2][3].

Later he opened his first restaurant, the Wine Epergne. It won rave reviews^[1]. He also spent years in teaching, helping set up a culinary arts degree course at the Dublin College of Catering^[2][3].

Five Years And Fifteen Thousand Pounds

His dream was a restaurant with his own name over the door. Building it was slow. He spent around five years turning an upstairs room in Dublin into a dining room^[2]. He put in £15,000 of his own money^[2].

The bank was not impressed. When he asked for a £5,000 overdraft, the manager told him to go and jump in the river^[2]. He carried on anyway.

Thornton's Opens

In 1995 Thornton's opened its doors, run by Kevin in the kitchen and his wife Muriel, who looked after the books^[1][4]. It was small, with around 45 seats and a tiny brigade of cooks^[2].

The food was all about nature. FOUR Magazine described cooking that reflected the true flavours of local produce and his love of the natural world^[3]. It was the cooking of a man who had dug the vegetable beds himself.

The bank manager who said no would soon be proven wrong. Within months, Michelin inspectors were on their way^[2].