French restaurateur Patrick Guilbaud has been chosen as the recipient of the Distinguished Leader in Business award at the seventh annual Irish Times Business Awards at the Round Room in the Mansion House on Thursday night. The awards are held in association with Bank of Ireland.
Restaurant Patrick Guilbaud has been in business here for more than 40 years, weathering various economic storms, the 2008 financial crash and the Covid-19 pandemic, while earning two Michelin stars along the way.
Mr Guilbaud was born in 1952 in the Cognac region of France. His father was from a farming family while his mother was a seamstress. He began his career working in his mother’s bistro in Caen and credits here for his passion for cooking, putting great store on preparation and presentation.
Mr Guilbaud got a job as a chef in a hotel in Caen before later securing a place in the kitchens of the British embassy in Paris. From there he had spells in top restaurants in Munich, Berlin and Paris before moving to Manchester in 1975. He married Sally and they opened a restaurant, Le Rabelais, in a Cheshire village called Alderly Edge.
It was there he met Irish businessman Barton Kilcoyne, who planted the idea in his head of moving to Dublin. Mr Guilbaud sold Le Rabelais and bought a site at St James’s Place East, just off Baggot Street.
In 1997, he moved the restaurant to the new five-star Merrion Hotel that had been developed by successful Irish businessmen Lochlann Quinn and Martin Naughton, who were also shareholders in Mr Guilbaud’s restaurant.
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The restaurant secured a prized Michelin star in 1988 and a second one in 1996, retaining both since then.
Speaking to The Irish Times Mr Guilbaud noted how Irish food has “moved on incredibly” since he arrived here in 1981.
He said “business is steady” at the moment, in spite of the challenges facing the sector. “Are we going to beat last year? Maybe not but so far we are a little bit ahead of last year. We’ll see what the second half of the year holds. Our year runs from September to August. I think we’ll be fine.”
The secret sauce of its success, he said was “to stay young, to stay in the moment and with the market”.
“Just do a very good job, buy the best products you can and cook them the best way you can,” he added.
