Grainne O’Keeffe brings the great traditions and dishes of the world to a little room at Leonard’s Corner in Dublin, and makes them her own.

No, but seriously, like.
What can’t Grainne O’Keeffe cook?
She can do the Cordon Bleu: roasted leeks and chopped egg (and a crisp of chicken skin, just to be contemporary)
The Deep South barbecue? That’s the homemade sausage.
The Toast Thing? That’s already a classic: her grilled sourdough with hot smoked trout. You would walk to Leonard’s Corner for that alone
The French Classic: chicken liver parfait served with toasted brioche and quince.
The New Nordic? Celeriac ravioli with hazelnuts, a pure beaut.
The Balearic is her dish of cod with mussels and chickpeas. Oh, and she makes what are almost certainly the best ham croquettes in town. You will need at least two of those to start.
The Japanese? That clever bonito rice vinegar with oysters.
And don’t forget the Georgians! Tuck in to that walnut butter with organic beets and Toonsbridge ricotta.
It goes on.
The French-Indian: vadouvan butter with BBQ cauliflower
The English: Eton Mess.
The French: chocolate mousse.
The French, again: onglet, with a touch of Argentinian, chimichurri.
The Korean: sprouts with kimchi.
Ms O’Keeffe can cook the whole globe. Dinner in the funky little Clanbrassil House is a cat walk of classics, all rendered with subtlety and respect, This is polymath cookery but, above all, it is sympathetic, empathetic.
It’s also, like, deadly.
We first met Ms O’Keeffe in Waterford, at the West Waterford Festival, in 2014. She gave a demo on stage in front of a hall of people, and it didn’t phase her a jot. The previous year, she had been amongst the five finalists in the Eurotoques Young Chef of the Year.
We picked her as a Hot Chef for 2015 in our annual Megabites Awards.
The great Eugene McSweeney had this to say about her cooking in Pichet: “On the way out I met their young Irish, Dublin, sous chef, Grainne, who cooked our meal: with that young talent in the country I am so proud of our Irish talent!”
People, Grainne O’Keeffe has arrived and, in a little room in Dublin 7 which has enjoyed a five figure makeover – €723.81cent – she is cooking food that puts the sublime on every single plate.