It may be adorned with two Michelin stars and have lofty prices reflecting the haute cuisine, with emphasis on the French, but Dublin's Restaurant Patrick Guilbaud has been omitted from the latest guide to the 100 Best Restaurants in Ireland.
The decision by food writers John and Sally McKenna to drop from their Bridgestone guide what Michelin regards as the capital's best restaurant is "symptomatic of how dynamic Irish food culture is at present", the McKennas insist.
Nouvelle cuisine has become rather old-fashioned, Mr McKenna declared yesterday. He was sitting in Dish restaurant in Temple Bar, which he felt was reflecting where Irish food was at: "hip, considered, eclectic and very smartly created".
They had looked for people "who are cooking with passion and commitment, irrespective of circumstances", The Irish Times food contributor said - not marble bathrooms, petits fours and changing of ashtrays after every course.
The bottom line was: would they go back during their time off and spend their own money at Restaurant Patrick Guilbaud? The answer - in the current climate where value, not price, was important - was an emphatic "no".
The McKennas' books on restaurants and accommodation may be best-sellers but Patrick Guilbaud said he did not waste his time on them. "We are not in the (1998 restaurant) guide. It speaks volumes for it. I rest my case."
He was thankful for his many customers who thought differently to the McKennas. "I'm a chef and restaurateur. I like to be judged by my fellow professionals, not people who do not know much about food. Irish cuisine has benefited from people who came from abroad to cook here. There are a lot of very good young Irish chefs now. It's fantastique. I like to think we were the catalyst of that."
As various gastronomic guides were heaping praise on Guilbaud's restaurant, the McKennas admitted in their 1996 Irish Food Guide they remained out of step with the adulation. Nonetheless, they acknowledged "the synchronicity of the service, the assurance of the cooking, the plausibility of the design, the grace of the event that is dinner in RPG".
They found, however, that the sleek, beautiful machine lacked "true passion, for the business of food".
In the 100 Best Restaurants last year, the McKenna verdict was trenchant while, nonetheless, citing some fine points. They added: "But, sometimes, when you look around the smart room at dinner-time and see the clientele which RPG attracts - the ageing bourgeoisie, the impressionable folk who choose where they eat by virtue of exclusivity and expense - you realise that RPG has been left behind . . . outpaced by its younger rivals."
The 1998 edition goes one step further by choosing to omit RPG from the "100 best" list entirely.
