Interview with Aonghus O’Reilly: Chef at the Phoenix Restaurant

Today we have been talking to experienced Head Chef at the Phoenix Restaurant, Aonghus O’Reilly who has kindly agreed to meet us and answer our questions.

Aonghus joined Phoenix Restaurant in August 2012 and he is delighted to be working with a like-minded team and Phoenix’s management. His position also involves more sociable hours than Aonghus’ previous jobs therefore he is enjoying having stability and has more time for his family.

The positive aspects about working with Compass Group that appeal to Aonghus are corporate structure, regulation and straightforward ideas.

The company’s policies provide great guidance and add to professionalism and future prospects. There is a contracted food supplier for the Phoenix. At this stage Aonghus has become familiar with customer preferences and how these preferences dictate their purchases.

Interesting things to know about Aonghus:  

The most essential item in the kitchen: knife -” can’t do anything without it” admits Aonghus.

Favourite ingredient: Celeriac

“It is a root vegetable with a creamy texture and firm flavour. It is beautiful in soups and roastings…” – how Aonghus describes it would make it sound appealing to anyone although it may sound, on first hearing, as being just another insignificant root. Aonghus makes one to imagine the dish and want to try it. It is apparent how much passion he has for his profession.

Chef inspired by: Ed Cooney Executive chef in Merrion Hotel is a great mentor that Aonghus keeps in touch with because of the confidence that Ed showed in him from his early years as a chef. He still keeps in touch with Ed who is an excellent contact.

Cook Books: Aonghus has more than 120 cook books! He could buy a book just because of one recipe but he does not like getting cook books as presents. 

Having eaten at the Phoenix Restaurant for the past half year every day we could highly recommend it to anyone to enjoy its rich nutrition and fresh ingredients prepared by Aonghus.

The picture in this post is used with the kind permission of Aonghus O’Reilly.

Aonghus O’Reilly – Head Chef at The Phoenix Restaurant

Aonghus O’Reilly – Head Chef at The Phoenix Restaurant

Aonghus O’Reilly has always cooked from when he was quite young. His mother was a great baker and did a lot of baking for family and friends, especially around Christmas time. That’s where Aonghus got his first interest for cooking.

Aonghus always experimented with food; instead of just throwing up what young men would normally eat when they move away from home. For example, trying vanilla essence in pancakes.

In terms of becoming involved in cooking as a profession, Aonghus was cooking dinner for some friends when he was about 19 and one of the guests happened to be a chef. He offered Aonghus a job as a commis chef after being impressed with his cooking skills.

He started off working in a pub called Oil Can Harry’s in Mount Street, Dublin about 17 or 18 years ago. From there Aonghus progressed to the Merrion Hotel and most of his formal training was undertaken there. It first opened in 1996 or 1997 and what Aonghus learned there from the point of view of standards and professionalism would still be something that he would continue with today as much as possible.

At that time Aonghus also travelled to France to complete some Stages (Internships), working in hotels and restaurants gaining great experience. To this day, Aonghus travels to France every second year at least with his family to holiday and enjoy the French culture and cuisine.

Before working at the Phoenix, a big dislike would have been the unsociable working hours involved. However this is something that has to be accepted when working in high-tempo restaurants or chasing awards. This would involve a lot of late nights, absences from family occasions such as birthday parties or Christmas. Now that Aonghus has children, he requires more social hours and stability in his home life which is enabled by his job at Phoenix Restaurant.

Apart from the locations already mentioned, places that Aonghus has worked include a restaurant called Mange Tout (now closed), the Poitin Still pub, Kingswood House, the Buenos Aires Grill and others. He also spent three years free-lancing for himself, working at racecourses and corporate firms, providing catering services in-house for executives and their clients who preferred to dine in a private environment. Aonghus would be provided with an on-site kitchen and his role would be to provide and prepare the food, wine and waiting staff as required.

At the end of 2008, beginning of 2009, when the economic downturn intensified, companies requiring these services reined in their budgets and the first thing to go was the expensive food. Therefore, Aonghus had to look for a job again but thankfully, due to his professional ability and the fact that people have to eat no matter where in the world they live, he was confident of finding new employment.

Aonghus’ ambitions for the future would be to progress through the Compass Group, to develop himself within the catering sector but also any other aspect of the company that he might be able to get involved in. As much as Aonghus loves cooking, over time he has started to look at the bigger picture and at some stage he realises that he will have to step away from the ovens.

Outside of working Aonghus has a number of interests particularly those that are related to his two daughters who play camogie at Lucan Sarsfields GAA club. He has recently become involved with the club and took a foundation course for coaching younger children and is looking forward to continuing with this in January 2013. Aonghus played hurling himself as a boy. He also supports his older daughter with her interest in boxing. Apart from sport, Aonghus does some writing and likes to collect wild foods such as mushrooms, blackberries, sloes, hazelnuts and whatever he can find depending on the time of year. He wrote a blog about his wild food knowledge a couple of years ago until work commitments interjected but he hopes to resume writing in the near future. He also did radio work in a similar context at that time.

Phoenix Balances Your Options

The Phoenix Restaurant on NUI Maynooth’s North Campus is part of the Compass Group global food service company and, as such, has  the advantage of being able to avail of the services of Compass’ very own dieticians. These dieticians make a  positive contribution at the Phoenix with their most significant impact being the role they play in promoting health, wellness and nutrition.

Nutritional labelling plays a big part in the Phoenix’s strategy as it continues to roll out their healthy eating framework ‘Balanced Choices’, providing healthy food choices across the various menu offerings. This gives their consumers the nutritional information that they need to make informed choices.

This year, Compass also launched a new healthy eating programme, ‘Whole+Sum’. This innovative programme enables consumers to select a healthy and balanced meal by adding together calorie controlled food options to the value of 600 calories or less per meal. ‘Whole+Sum’ reflects consumer trends by combining popular world cuisine flavour profiles and comfort foods, with enough variety that adds to people’s enjoyment on their visit to the ‘Whole+Sum’ station every day.

As a demonstration of their commitment to the initiative, Phoenix constantly strive to improve the nutritional labelling at their Restaurant, including the introduction of calorie counts and improving knowledge and awareness of the benefits of a balanced nutritional diet. The Phoenix will also strive to reduce the levels of salt and artificial trans fats in the food they serve each day.

So all of the above is good news for those who may feel that they have over indulged during the Christmas break, as a carefully planned out daily calorie intake combined with the right balance of foods should get them back on track and NO it does not mean you don’t have to exercise as well!