A French Cook In The North Of England

In 1972 Patrick Guilbaud packed his knives and crossed the Channel. His destination was not London. It was Manchester^[1].

It was a bold choice for a young French cook. The north of England in the early 1970s was not known for haute cuisine. But it gave him room to try things on his own terms.

Love And A First Restaurant

England also gave him something more personal. There he met his wife, Sally^[1]. Together they opened a restaurant called Le Rabelais in Alderley Edge, a village in Cheshire^[1].

It was a French name for a French cook a long way from home.

Le Rabelais was his first restaurant^[2]. For the first time, he was not working for a head chef or a hotel. He was the one choosing the menu, buying the produce and greeting the guests.

Learning To Run A House

Running your own place is a different job from cooking in someone else's. There is the rent, the staff and the bills, as well as the food. The years in Cheshire taught him the business side of a restaurant, lessons he would need very soon.

Looking West

By 1981 he wanted more. He wanted to show his cooking in a capital city^[2]. He looked across the Irish Sea and chose Dublin^[2].

It was a surprising move. When he arrived, interest rates stood at 24%^[1]. There were around 350 restaurants in all of Ireland at the time, compared with more than 3,000 four decades later^[1].

Those years also kept him close to his roots. He was cooking French food for English guests, just as he would later cook it for Irish ones. The lesson was the same in both places: respect the guest, but do not water down the cooking^[1][2].

Few would have bet on French fine dining in recession-hit Dublin. Guilbaud did. The years in Manchester and Alderley Edge had given him the confidence to try^[1][2].